Celestial Spirit
by levels
Summary: A new girl arrives to the guild, impressing her new found fellow mages (LaLu) Note: This takes place after the Fantasia incident, but Phantom Lord hasn't attacked yet, and Juvia and Gahjeel are already part of the guild.
1. Chapter 1

Fairy Tail Fan-fiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

 **Author Note: Never really done this before, I love writing and have a few short stories (of my own design) but they've never really progressed, I hope this is a small way to break out of my shell. Also I'm really bad at punctuation.**

 _Lucy pov_

I had finally arrived in front of the tall guild doors, an impressively large hammer strapped to my back yet felt light to me, it shifted as a I rolled my shoulders back, getting ready.

I pushed the doors open wide, I could hear the muffle of a ruckus coming from behind these doors as soon as they swung open though, the sound boomed in my ears and almost made me stagger back in surprise. There were people fighting everywhere, a brawl throughout the guild I had stepped into. I saw flashes of pink hair, ice forming, a few people seemed disinterested in what was going on around them. A black haired mage with piercings everywhere looking disgruntled as he stood towering over a small blue haired girl, nose deep in a book. A red haired mage who effortlessly backhanded anything... or anyone who came too close. A blonde haired mage who had tipped a chair back resting against one of the far walls, eyes closed, a sound pod over his ears. Others just looked like they were trying to avoid getting involved.

At the bar was a white haired woman wiping down a glass and small old man who was sitting comfortably on-top of the bar, legs crossed, looking serene.

I walked up to the bar and the old man lifted one eye lid peering at me "Hello." I told him. He smiled brightly at me "What brings you to Fairy Tail?!" He exclaimed. I smiled at his enthusiasm, I might like it here, the disinterested people looked my way, except for the blonde, I could hear his sound pod blasting.

"I'd like to join" I stated, simply.

 _End Lucy's pov_

The old mans smile grew brighter, "Well of course you can join!" He told the blonde girl happily, then out of nowhere and unexpectedly he grew larger making her take a step back. "QUIET YOU BRATS!" He bellowed, calming everyone down. They all fell silent as he shrunk back down to a normal height, Lucy looking highly amused and impressed.

"So!" The old man turned back to her "what seems to be your specialty?" He asked.

"I'm a celestial mage," she answered him politely. Everyone by now was listening intently, even the blonde had shrugged his sound pod off his ears, they hung loosely around his neck but the music was still blaring. He pulled it back up when he heard _celestial mage_ with an uninterested "tch." The black haired mage was also interested until that point, but he was less rude about it, she ignored them.

"What is that on your back?" A voice asked from behind her. Lucy turned to see it was the red haired woman, she was wearing armor she noted.

"Yeah, what can you do?!" A pink haired boy shouted at her, hands raised in a fist; a wide grin stretching his face, the red haired woman reached over and knocked him up-side the head.

"This?" Lucy said hooking a thumb, to point at the weapon on her back "my mom gave it to me before she died." She told them, "I don't know where she got it, but it's pretty amazing."that peaked everyone's interest.

"Show us! Show us!" Some people chorused The girl looked back the old man, "I don't think that's a good idea to do in here" she told him.

He nodded, eyes closed but smiling "Take it out back, in the training grounds then!" He pronounced.

The red haired woman stood up, "follow me" she told the girl, "by the way," she stopped before continuing, holding out her hand to shake the blondes "my name is Erza."

Lucy accepted "Lucy," she replied "and I've heard of you, I respect you prowess." Erza blushed, then motioned for her to follow.

Everyone scrambled outside to see what the weapon could do.

Lucy stood in the middle of the courtyard, she laid the hammer down, the handle sticking straight up into the air, they all waited with baited breath, but were interrupted when the pink haired boy shouted "Let's fight!" Racing to the middle of the training grounds to take a battle stance in front of her.

"No!" She told him flatly, he looked distraught putting his fists down, then back up a gain a determined grin on his face.

"Why? Scared?" He asked, taunting her.

Lucy sighed, "I'll tell you what, let me show you what it does first and then if you still want to fight, I'll allow it." She told him.

He looked like he was about to say something but a large hand wrapped around him, pulling him back to the edge of the arena. "Stay! Here!" The old man commanded.

Lucy watched, then looked around her, scanning the crowd, making sure no one else would be idiotic enough to jump into the middle of grounds. Then swiftly she picked the hammer up, jumping into the air she twisted and with a battle cry that rang out, she drove the hammer into the ground, shattering the earth into a crater.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail

Everyone stood in shock and awe, the crater she made was deep and huge, covering nearly the entire training grounds. There was an excited yell and everyone saw a flash of pink dashing to once again to take a stance in front of the blonde mage. She looked at him disbelievingly, "y-you still want to fight?" She asked him, sputtering out the words.

"Hell yeah!" He shouted.

She rolled her eyes, "fine" she told him. Her battle stance was different from his. He was hunched, knees apart, fists raised and fire ready to go, to fly across the arena and beat his opponent to a pulp. Her stance seemed more graceful, she had the hilt of her weapon in one hand poised facing away from her, and both arms raised outward, feet apart, digging them into the ground to stabilize her.

He leaped across the field and she swung the hammer around, she could feel the tension. Even though it was light, she could still feel the wind pushing against her hammer and it dragged her about an inch forward before she connected with his stomach, and there she released it sending him spinning across the field. He crashed into the ground out of the crater; everyone watching the fight looked even more shocked, and then laughed at the pink haired boys twitching body, the look on his face was priceless.

Lucy walked over and picked up her hammer; strapping it once more to her back as she simultaneously reached down and took the boys hand and helped him up. "That was a good fight!" He said rubbing the back of his head looking sheepish, "my name is Natsu!" He told her enthusiastically, she shook her head smiling. "Lucy" she told him.

"Oh I already knew that!" He laughed, I overheard you and Erza, I bet by now everyone knows your name!" He was still grinning from ear to ear.

"Well now; I'm going to have to get to know everyone else's then!" She laughed and with that she turned and headed in Erza and the old man's direction, he was smiling and Erza nodded at her, with a look of approval. Lucy faced the old man "Well, well, come inside!" He said brightly "we need to go ahead and give you the Fairy Tail mark!"

* * *

She had it placed on the back of her hand, pink, when Mira asked her, by now she knew almost everyone's names by the time she got inside. So many people were pestering her with questions but eventually she managed to politely shrug them off, and was now standing in front of the bar asking Mira for a strawberry milkshake. she felt a presence behind her and quickly turned around to see who it was and came face to face - or rather - boob to face with Erza who had been leaning down to examine her hammer.

Erza stepped back hurriedly, blushing scarlet red, apologizing profusely while bowing over and over, and asking her to strike her for her rude behavior. Lucy waved her hand dismissively laughing good naturedly "Do you want to see it?" She asked.

Erza nodded and watched the blonde girl pull the hammer from her back and hold it in her palms, towards Erza to examine it more closely "May I hold it?" Erza asked.

"I'm sorry, you can't" Lucy told her with an apologetic smile, Erza nodded, understanding, there were weapons of hers that she would not let other people touch, that she felt a sort of bond to. So she leaned close to inspect it, Lucy chuckled.

"You can touch it though," she told her, nodding at Erza to go ahead. The red haired mage wasted no time examining the hammer closely. The actual Hammer itself was huge, twice the size of Lucy's head, and resembled close to a cinder block, but was nicely edged. She ran her hands over it admiring the smooth glass-like silver sheen of it, it almost seemed to sparkle, on the top in the center she ran her hands over the spike protruding out of it, it looked deadly.

What she was saving for last though and what piqued her interest in the first place; was the hilt of the weapon. It was long, almost as long as the girl herself and it was made of a gorgeous dark wood and was etched in artistic perfection, large beasts, dragons, celestial images adorned the piece and blended altogether perfectly, the weapon was in harmony with itself. When she finally made it to the end she was holding a small violet ribbon made of leather tied in a knot. "My own personal touch" Lucy told her.

"It is a fine weapon" Erza commented "Thank you for allowing me to marvel its wonder" she said bowing respectively.

Lucy bellowed out a laugh causing half the guild to stare at her, "It's no problem" she told her grinning.

"What are you going to do now dear Lucy?" Master Makarov asked her.

"I need to take a job" she told him "I've been wandering around from town to town for about a year now, training in the outskirts and I'm finally ready to settle and establish myself as a part of something" she explained, he nodded his head in satisfied approval.

"If you would not mind, I would love for you and me to partner together" Erza told her, fist over her heart.

Lucy smiled; it was as bright as the sun "I'd love to!" She squealed.

With that the friendship and partnership blossomed between the two girls.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail**

 **Author Note: shout out to queenpragmatic about Lucy's powers, lol you'll have to keep reading to find out ;) and thanks for the reviews! I'm starting to feel less nervous and more enjoying myself!**

It had been two weeks since the celestial mage had walked through the guild doors of Fairy Tail. She had established a few friendships too in that amount of time. Erza for example; they went on missions together mainly, and she considered her and Levy to be her two best friends, and Levy went hand in hand with Gajeel, the iron dragon slayer who dubbed her nickname to be ' _bunny girl_ '.

* * *

 _She had been wearing a headband one day to push back the hair from her face and kinda grabbed one randomly out of her drawer in her vanity. She shrugged her shoulders when he teased her, pointing it out and flicking one of the ears, laughing, "You look ridiculous Bunny girl!" He had said chuckling._

 _"Same goes to you Iron brain" She retorted and Levy was hiding behind her book stifling a giggle, Gajeel flushed with embarrassment and turned his head to look away with a "tch."_

 _"Oh-kay!" Lucy said laughing, "You can dish it but you can't take it?" She asked, teasing him mercilessly, she was suddenly beside him and poking his arm fiercely until the spot turned red. He brushed her off easily enough and a small smile crept over his face, Levy suddenly bursting with laughter_

He didn't let up on the nickname, and it was endearing more than annoying.

* * *

She even hung around Natsu and Grey a few times with a very livid Juvia constantly popping up if Grey ever sat next to her

 _"LOVE RIVAL, WHY ARE SITTING NEXT TO GREY-SAMA?" She bellowed, seething. Lucy loved this girl and laughed at her antics._

 _"There's nothing going on!" She told her playfully grabbing the girl around her neck with one arm, crushing her in a tight hug and then pinching her cheeks, pulling them. She thought the weird nickname Juvia gave her was really cute; along with her… charming… crush on Grey._

* * *

She had even had a run in with a certain blonde lightning mage at one point.

 _She had grabbed a job request and was walking to Mira to get it approved, nose buried in it, reading over the details. So she didn't see him step in front of her and before she knew it she had ran into rock solid muscle. Strong hands gripped her shoulders and held her steady before she could tumble back._

 _She looked up at him, "Yes?"_

 _He was peering down at her and she noticed his stormy blue/grey eyes. She didn't have much time to process anything beyond that though before he spoke._

 _"You're going to join my team, Blondie." He told her._

 _Her face bunched up in a frown, Gajeel was off in his corner with Levy but he stood up; hearing the conversation and was silently cracking knuckles, just in case._

 _"No I'm not!" She retorted._

 _"Yes. You are. We're the strongest team in the guild, I've seen you fight, you can't hang around with a bunch of losers forever." He smirked, pointing at the brawl that had taken place… again…_

 _Lucy lifted a brow, "um, no. I'm not." She told him and went to walk around him but he stopped her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder, gentle enough to make her think maybe he was sorry._

 _"You're gonna join my team one of these days" He promised "you couldn't resist this." He said motioning to himself, with a wide grin on his face, squashing her thoughts._

 _She backed away from him rolling her eyes "you can't tell me what to do." She snapped "now back off sparky" and with that she had turned around and resumed what she was doing in the first place._

 _Everyone in the guild jumped and turned to see Gajeel roaring with laughter._

* * *

 _ **Laxus pov**_

He sat in usual place in the guild his raijinshuu was off on a mission without him, he'd been hanging around Fairy Tail more than usual, especially days a certain blonde girl was taking mission breaks.

What was with him? That first encounter with her had him annoyed, maybe it was the rejection that had him thinking about her… and following her around a-lot. He knew he'd been a jerk that day, when she had rejected him he didn't take it very well, and his sarcastic uncaring demeanor, the wall he put up; got the best of him. Even if he changed since the Fantasia incident, some things would always stay the same.

He rubbed his hand across his face exasperatedly and grunted in more annoyance, it was building up in him, and it didn't help that he was listening intently to her talking to some of the other guild members, she had the entire guild wrapped around her little finger, even his raijinshuu enjoyed her company and they certainly didn't mess up the way he did, she barely looked in his direction and it was really pissing him off when she gave any other guy her attention.

He wanted to go over there and snatch her up away from them all.

He heard another peal of laughter, ringing in his ears like bells and he looked up. Gajeel had Lucy slung over his shoulder and was tickling her sides without reprieve to the point where she couldn't breathe. "What did you call me Bunny girl?" He laughed, Levy was laughing openly at the two of them, they acted like siblings, everyone knew, even he did but that didn't stop the stab of anger that lit him up.

He had his fists clenched ready to pound the Iron head, he didn't realize he had stood up and the chair he was in had fallen over, the crash wasn't loud, but still a-lot of people turned in his direction with puzzled looks, including Lucy, Levy and Gajeel.

Gajeel gave Laxus a mischievous smirk and scooped up Levy from her spot, heading out the door, with both of them over each shoulder, they protested loudly swinging arms back and forth in wild exaggerated emotions, but they were having a great time. "C'mon ladies. I'm tired of hanging around here!" Laughter rolling around in him, like thunder. He was clearly enjoying torturing the poor guy, but no one else even knew.

Lucy turned, giving Laxus one more curious look before the guild doors shut and he was left there, grinding his teeth in anger.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

A loud crash ricochet across the landscape, a giant beast stumbled forward but something slammed across its jawbone with a crushing blow and sent it reeling backward; flattening the trees underneath it.

The creature bellowed which was swiftly cut off by another blow, Lucy sprang into the air again, her breaths coming in heavy as she twisted into her signature move and was spiraling from high above the monster and landed another blow into its belly causing it to cave in; it howled in agony, trying to swipe her off but she dodged it.

The enormous beast got back up with an almighty roar, raged and swiping at the two women. Lucy attacked from the front again, delivering another crushing blow while Erza was attacking it from behind so it was caught in a kind of ping pong match between the reequip mage and the celestial mage.

The creature was stumbling to its knees damn near falling to the earth, but before it did Lucy jumped from one knee to its arm and using the momentum pushed off and smacked it across the jaw again. It reeled back and hit the ground with a deafening crash, defeated.

Eventually they made their way to a hill overlooking the landscape, and overlooking the defeated creature, the sun was about to set, they had the scroll that was requested by a duke to retrieve it for him; beside them.

Both girls had a fine sheen of sweat covering them, Lucy's hair was wild and tangled from the wind that picked up, it felt glorious against the heat radiating off her body from the battle.

"We should probably get going." Erza commented but wasn't moving; eventually she lay down on the soft grass looking at the sky. Lucy didn't really feel like moving either and both were waiting for the other to finally get up, having small conversation.

"How do you like Fairy Tail?" Erza asked her finally, through the content silence.

Lucy smiled brightly "I love it!" She told her, everyone there is friendly, well" she looked off "almost everyone," she commented shrugging. She was bothered by Laxus attitude, he didn't seem like that with his teammates or even other people, just around her he acted like an arrogant buffoon and it pissed her off.

Erza nodded in understanding, Lucy having told her about the incident. The sun was nearly below the horizon and they sat there watching it dip under the landscape, still keeping up the small talk, moving in and out of deeper conversation like waves on the shore.

They enjoyed each other's company when it came to missions. Lucy had been on a few with other mages, Gajeel and her went on one and he came second to her list of favorite people to battle next to. She went on _one_ mission with Natsu and Grey and that was enough for her, they destroyed everything and she barely came back with enough to cover the rent at her apartment. She had even gone on a few with Levy and her team. The script mage often went on the type of missions that involved going to old, large or famous libraries and those were the missions Lucy enjoyed like a vacation, she had fun on them and didn't really go for the money, more to just spend time with her best friend.

Erza and her mainly went together though, they had grown to be like sisters more than friends after a certain point, anything either had a problem with; they knew they could talk to each other and the other could give valuable insight as the outsider looking in. Lucy had come to love and adore her Fairy Tail family.

Finally she stood and held out her hand to Erza, helping her up; they made their way back to town.

* * *

They had arrived to Magnolia by mid-afternoon the next day and the Fairy Tail guild, pushing the doors open they were greeted by lively chatter and a "Welcome hoooooome!" By almost everyone. Lucy waved bye to Erza who walked off to the bar to order herself a cake but stopped long enough to smash Natsu and Grey's heads together for fighting again.

Lucy sat at the table across from Levy and pushed both fists under her chin, resting her head on them, staring at the bluenette patiently until she finally looked up from her book, blinking a few times before coming back to reality.

"Lucy!" She exclaimed, beaming. "How was your mission?" she asked her.

"It went good" Lucy said smiling, and then yawned.

"what? Can't handle a giant cave beast?' Gajeel teased, Lucy stuck her tongue out at him in response

The doors crashed open and the raijinshuu walked through, Laxus seemed to be scanning the guild for something, until his eyes finally caught the blonde girl amidst the crowd, he led the rest of his team to a table; far enough away from her so she couldn't outright see him, but close enough that he could study the details of her face. Not that she even looked up at him in the first place, she was actively ignoring him and he heard Gajeel chuckling.

That irritated him "You got a problem?" He snapped at him, getting up slowly.

Gajeel pushed himself out of his corner and faced the lightning mage, "maybe, what's it to ya?" He asked in a threatening tone.

Levy looked scared and Lucy rolled her eyes, she got up and stood between them "Will you two knock it off?" She asked them in an exasperated tone, looking between them, her eyes settling on Laxus face a bit longer than Gajeel's "Men… I swear "she muttered and walked off to the bar to order her usual milkshake, Mira greeting her brightly.

Both men glared at each other for a moment before Laxus eased back in his own chair "you're not even worth it" he told the iron dragon slayer

Before Gajeel could retort Lucy had been walking back and heard the comment "and you are?" She asked him with a glare "you're an arrogant asshole, you know that?"

Laxus looked away, he couldn't face her. He just had to keep sticking his _damn_ foot in his _damn_ mouth, why couldn't he act right?

Lucy had finally revert her attention back to Levy and the two girls struck up a conversation; she was effectively ignoring him now and it irritated him beyond belief. He got up suddenly, shoving the able away from him and startling his teammates, fully intent on going over there and turning her around, forcing her to look at him, but it wouldn't do much good, it might make her hate him more and he knew that.

So instead he stomped to the bar and ordered a heavy drink. Mira looked between him and Lucy thoughtfully "you know…" she said slowly, choosing her words carefully "if you just apologize she might actually warm up to you." She said; a sense of knowing in her voice.

Laxus picked up on it "don't even start with me Mira." He blurted roughly.

Mira sighed exasperated "she talks to everyone in the guild" she looked at him pointedly "except you and all because you let your ego get the best of you."

He grunted.

"If you actually apologized, I know she'd be willing to let the incident drop, but until you do, until you stop acting like a jerk to save face. She's never even going to glance your way."

"She did tonight, didn't she?" He snapped at her

Mira rolled her eyes "so what are you going to do? Keep picking fights with her friends so she looks your way?" He could almost hear the sarcasm dripping from her voice "yeah that's gonna work." She put another drink down in front of him, he had finished his first pretty quickly "put your pride away already Laxus, before it's too late and her view of you stays clouded." With that the white haired take over mage walked away.

Laxus sighed, passing a hand over his face and turned to stare intently at the blonde. He glanced at his teammates who were casting glances of their own his way and whispering worriedly about him, he could hear what they were saying and he didn't care. They had sensed what was going on with him, and it was shocking to them.

His flicked his gaze back over to her, she was laughing and giggling with Levy, both girls occasionally teasing Gajeel, he didn't take his eyes off her for the remainder of the evening trying to devise some sort of plan. He knew he needed to apologize, and to make up for it, he just didn't know how to go about it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

"Hey Mira have you seen Erza?" Lucy asked the bar maid while looking around for her.

"Oh! Lucy!" Mira said with hint of an apology in her voice "you just missed her, she decided to let Natsu and Grey go on a mission with her." She smiled at the blonde mage and shrugged one shoulder halfheartedly.

"Oh good lord, I feel sorry for her" Lucy said "well thanks anyway." She turned to leave but Mira stopped her.

"Why were you looking for her? Maybe I could help?" She asked smiling at her brightly.

Lucy looked down at the page in her hands, a job she thought they could take, requesting two mages. One of them required to be an S-class, she would have asked Gajeel in Erza's place but he wasn't an S class, so he didn't qualify.

"I have this job I wanted to go on" she explained to Mira "but it requires at least one S-class mage, so it's a no go." She waved the paper in her hands around in the air, with a sad sigh, "oh well," she said slumping.

"I could take you," a voice spoke from behind her, both girls looked over at the individual who turned out to be Laxus, Lucy rolled her eyes.

"No thanks" she said curtly, "I'll just take another one" with that she went to brush past him but he blocked her path.

"Hey!" She protested trying to go around him again; but again he blocked her path.

"Laxus!" she began, stating to get really frustrated with this guy, she was beginning to lose what little patience she had left for him.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted, heat rising to his cheeks, but it stopped her and she looked up at him with an eyebrow raised. He blew out a frustrated sigh and continued "Look, I was being a jerk the first day we met," he began; Mira was behind Lucy beaming, but he ignored her "and I'm sorry for being an ass to your friend" he said hooking a thumb to point in Gajeel's direction. "I don't know what got into me, but I want to make it up to you, go on this mission with me and maybe we can be friends?" He asked her, and waited for her reply.

Lucy thought it over for a minute, she was sizing him up, yeah he was an ass, yeah she didn't particularly enjoy his attitude and yeah she had been ignoring him and giving him the silent treatment as much as she possibly could since that day; but here he was apologizing and she decided to go ahead and give him a shot.

"Okay," she finally conceded.

Laxus let out his breath, he didn't realize the time she spent agonizing him with her scrutiny he had been holding it.

Lucy turned to Mirajane; "can you sign off on this?" She asked her

Mira looked thoughtfully at Laxus, surprised but proud of his actions, and maybe a bit of her matchmaking meddling was starting to kick in, she stood there looking off into space while thinking of blonde haired, blue eyed babies or maybe even brown eyed babies; when Lucy tapped her on the shoulder, clearly worried over Mira's expression of hearts in her eyes and drool coming out of her mouth "are you okay?" She asked her anxiously.

"She's fine" Laxus muttered under his breath rolling his eyes and shooting Mira a glare. Mira quickly recovered with an apology blushing bright red, she stamped the page and handed it back to them with the go ahead. "Have fun!" She squealed as they left, Lucy waved brightly to her and they took off. The form requested they be there by morning so they needed to head to the train station then and there if they were going to make it.

On the way there she kept stealing glances, assessing him, and also a little appreciation mixed in with it. After all he was a handsome guy, nobody could deny that even with his brash demeanor, she could admit; he was easy on the eyes. He was built, few men she had come across looked like he did, his ruffled blonde hair rustled in the wind and his face was just… well _damn_ , good looking she thought, everything about him from head to toe, and his gorgeous blue/grey eyes. He was something to be admired alright and she had heard of what he could do, his incredible power she felt her heart swell with respect, suddenly she was feeling a certain way but she pushed it down as quickly as it came up, a blush rising to her cheeks.

They arrived at their destination in the middle of the night, neither one barely said a word and during the train ride Laxus had his sound pod on, ignoring her and she finally resigned herself to sleep she became exasperated with his attitude, he wanted to go on a mission, and was sorry, and then he wanted to turn around and just ignore her. _Ass._

When in truth not only was he motion sick, but when she fell asleep he finally chanced to look in her direction, with her asleep he could really study her features without her catching him. He thought about what she would do if she caught him, would she be angry? Embarrassed? Would there be a hint of something more? Not really wanting to find out, especially since their previous encounters he silently studied her.

From her golden hair splayed over the arm rest, to her soft face and long dark lashes, her cheeks were slightly rosy and she was breathing calmly. He watched the rise and fall of her chest and when she shifted he watched every movement.

He did that the entire time she was asleep and when the train rolled to a stop and she woke up he resumed his pretend position of staring gruffly out the window.

Lucy got up and stretched while simultaneously reaching up to the above compartment to get her bag down and that afforded him another sneaky glance, her shirt rose up to expose her midriff; which wasn't something that happened all that often.

Apparently this girl was a fan of high waist-ed ting clothing, high waist-ed shorts, pants, skirts, you name it. She also apparently had a thing for studs and spikes because the shirt she was wearing now had spikes lining the collar, sewn into the fabric.

She was actually wearing a normal pair of blue jean shorts today, which were ripped at the bottom, and she wore her usual combat boots, the spike trend continuing with them, every one of her boots always had some number amount of spikes or studs on them.

When she finally reached her bag she pulled out another headband and pushed her hair back with her hands, it tumbled all tangled and loose and she secured it in place with her hair accessory.

When she had pushed back her hair it made her look untamed and sexy, he huffed and looked away again, closing his eyes; he could feel himself tensing; unbeknownst to her she had given him a ton of great views.

"Hey" she said shaking his shoulder softly; apparently she thought he'd been asleep this whole time. "Hey wake up" she said again. He opened his eyes and stared at her, she boldly lifted the sound pod off his ears "it's time to go" she told him. If that had been anybody else, he would have shocked them across the train car and out through the opposite window, but he just nodded to her getting up and grabbing his own bag.

They were walking away from the train station and to the hotel; there was nothing they could do about the job until morning so they decided to get what little sleep they could.

They both kept unusually quiet the whole time, looking around at the sights and avoiding each other, she was silently studying her companion, staking small glances of her own and actually even faltered her step so she could study him from behind her eyes roved up and down and then Lucy heard him call back to her "Yo, blondie."

She looked up meeting his gaze, he had turned around to look at her "yeah?" she asked.

"So what's the mission?" He asked her.

She grabbed the page out of her bag and looked it over "help wanted to retrieve son of the duke, apparently possessed by a Vulcan." She read over it. "It pays pretty well, and even with the cost split, it'll cover my rent for two months. Though I wouldn't need it for it, I've been saving all of it and managed to pay for half a year." She looked up pondering "I wonder if I should treat myself for once" she wondered, mostly talking to herself, but Laxus decided to give his input.

"Might as well," he shrugged nonchalantly as possible, but his tone was friendly.

She shrugged herself, undecided. They finally came up to the hotel and had got two rooms, they weren't across from each or even next to each like they had hoped, it would have made things easier. They were actually on separate floors, but amazingly enough his room was directly below hers.

"night," she said dismissing him and went upstairs to her own room by herself, he ran a hand through his hair watching her go, sighing he went to his own room ready to get some sleep.

* * *

He could hear her tossing and turning in the middle of the night, and he could hear the nightmares in her dreams. He was worried and wondered if he should go up there and wake her up. While he was preoccupied with his thoughts an the earsplitting scream that threatened to wake up the whole town could be heard through his ceiling. He jumped out of bed and quickly threw open the doors of his balcony and lightning teleported to the floor of the one above his, he was glad the doors to her own balcony were unlocked; or he would have broken the door itself.

He raced to her bed crashing into her side next to her and clapped his hand over her mouth while trying to wake her up, her eyes flew open and end eventually she calmed down.

" _What the fuck_?!" She spat, but not at him "it's been years, since I had a nightmare like that!" She looked shaken. She finally turned noticing him, she looked utterly confused "Laxus, what are you doing here?" She asked blindly.

"I heard you screaming so I came to see if you were okay." He told her.

She felt surprised "well…. Thank you" she told him, smiling gratefully, then she did something neither expected, she moved and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. At first he was too shocked to do anything, but before he lost the moment he quickly wrapped his own arms around her waist and pulled her close to him, feeling her body pressed against his made him want to groan.

Finally she let go; not noticing his reaction "thanks, really." She said, sincerity in her voice. "I would have been embarrassed if people heard that."

He was looking intently at her "no problem" he finally grunted out.

She looked thoughtful "you know… I thought you were a real jerk" he flinched at her bluntness "but," she said "I don't know what that was all about before, but… you surprised me" she put her hand on his arm and he looked down at it and then into her eyes "can we start over?" She asked him.

He was actually getting a second chance? To get things on the right foot? And it had been easy just like Mira said it would and he was kicking himself mentally for not doing it sooner. "Yeah sure" he finally said

She stuck her hand out "Hi my name is Lucy; it's nice to meet you."

He took her delicate hand in his large one and shook it "Laxus and it's nice to meet you too."

It was the start of something at least.

* * *

The next day they went to the dukes' house who told them where they could find his son, and begged them to return him safe. They told him that they would do all they could and left for the forest; they found the Vulcan easily enough with Laxus sensitive hearing, they stumbled into a clearing ready to face what was coming.

Apparently there was a whole nest of them, and they didn't know which one was the dukes son, but there was only one way to find out. They started to attack the horde; Laxus hit them full on with his lightning strike, sending some of them sprawling. Lucy brought out Loke " _Regulus punch!_ " He yelled smashing into a few of them, knocking them back, and Lucy swung her own hammer around bashing them around silly.

They kept this up for quite awhile, they would knock a few down and then turn to the next group; and by the time they were done with that group, the first would be back up.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Lucy yelled over the noise, the two boys wordlessly agreed.

Eventually they beat them back and most of the Vulcan's left standing were too tired to go on and collapsed after a few moments, the dukes son still wasn't among them. Lucy picked through the bodies beating a few who were still awake unconscious, but even after they were all laying there; out like a light, none of them revealed the man. "Where is he?" She almost hissed, getting worried. She turned to face the two men, wanting to say something, they had wide eyes and started at something behind her. Whatever it was it gripped her around the waist before she knew it and she was pulled high into the air, she let out a yelp.

"LUCY!" She heard the two boys below her shouting; she twisted herself enough to face a Vulcan three times the size of a normal one. It suddenly rose over the trees causing the earth to tremble.

"Shit." she muttered under her breath, as she tried pull herself free

"Do something!" she heard Loke scream at Laxus "I can't!" She heard him bite back "if I shock him that current will pass into her and it could kill her!" Also if they attempted to knock it over there was a chance she might get severely injured. She needed to make it let go, her hands were caught at her sides, but she could still feel the keys brush against her fingers; she picked what she hoped was the right one. "Open! Gate of the crab! Cancer!" She shouted above the roar of the Vulcan, it started to crash around trying to step on Laxus and Loke who were dodging it, still trying to figure out what to do.

"Do you need me to give you a new hairstyle today? -ebi" He asked her appearing on the Vulcan's wrist, luckily it was preoccupied; but she knew she didn't have long.

"No! I need you to stab him with your scissors, make him let go of me!" She told him. Cancer turned to face the beast, seeming like he just realized it was there but without hesitation he stabbed his scissors straight into the wrist of the monster.

It yelped in rage and pain, but it let go of her. Cancer dismissed himself and she free fell, before she could react to her own situation somebody had already caught her in mid-air and she could feel herself being crushed against something hard. She looked up to see Laxus and she blushed taken aback. He looked down at her when they reached the ground and set her gently down "You okay?" He asked his eyes roving over her, checking for injuries. Her heart stammered for a minute; but she came back to herself "Yeah I'm fine" She said with a new found determined look on her face, "let's get this ass-hole!" She said raising her fist in the air.

Loke was running toward her to see if she was okay but stopped when she faced him, hammer ready nodding to him, he nodded back in understanding "We all strike together!" She shouted to the two boys "On three!" she commanded.

"ONE!" She bent low prepared to leap.

"TWO!" Loke took his own stance.

"THREE!" Laxus was charged and ready to go. They all attacked at once, Loke slammed into the belly of the beast with " _Regulus punch_!", sending it reeling. Lucy swung her hammer and smashed it's jaw, and finally Laxus threw a bolt of lightning; striking the creature. It fell heavily into the ground, splitting a few trees in it's crash.

They were all breathless and finally they watched as the beast shimmered and split, a man lay next to it, sprawled in the same position. "Looks like we found our guy." Lucy said between gasps.

Laxus strode over and one fluid motion had the man picked up and hung over his shoulder. "You ready Blondie?" He asked her, she nodded and turned to Loke. "You can go back now" she said smiling, "thanks for your help."

Loke smiled reaching out he took her hand and swept a kiss over the back of it. "My pleasure princess" he murmured while disappearing; closing his own gate. She heard Laxus grunt in annoyance and turned back to him "let's just go" he said curtly, when she gave him a questioning look.

They had walked in silence for some time, before he spoke "So is he you're boyfriend?" He asked her looking down at her face.

Lucy was confused for a moment, and then laughed when his question dawned on her "No!" She exclaimed, "Loke thinks he has a thing with ladies, he does that to every girl he meets." She continued laughing. Laxus was still staring at her.

"Why do you ask?" she asked him.

He shrugged his shoulder, "figured it was hard to have a relationship with a celestial spirit" he answered.

"Ohhhh" she said nodding in understanding "well, all my celestial spirits are my friends" she informed him "I don't tell them how they should act; I want them to be free to be themselves."

He seemed satisfied with that answer, so they cut the conversation, not only that but they finally reached the town. After they dropped the duke's son off and got their reward Lucy turned to Laxus "hey!" she called to him, he looked over at her "Want me to treat you to lunch?" She asked smiling, he smiled back "sure," he said.

* * *

When they finally reached Magnolia it was a mid-morning the day after their mission, they stayed for lunch and dinner (he offered to treat her as well), and then got on the next train for their home.

They both walked through the guild doors simultaneously and Lucy was greeted by the guild members while he was greeted by his raijinshuu. Laxus strode off with a goodbye to her and sat down at the table of his teammates.

Lucy ordered a smoothie and decided while Mira was making it she would thank him again, she approached Laxus noticing his teammates watched her as she put her hand on his shoulder and he turned around to face her slightly shocked "thanks again" she said softly, smiling at him.

He nodded and smiled back at her "no problem" he said roughly

She gave him another smile "see you around!" she called turning and walking back to the bar, a lively bounce in her step.

"See you around Blondie." He replied turning back to his team. Freed looked dumbfounded, Bixlow had his tongue out laughing, and Evergreen winked at him "so you finally got her to talk to you huh?" She asked him.

He leaned back in his chair studying them "yeah" he finally told them.

"W-well that's good" Freed sputtered Bixlow slapped Laxus on the back, "good!" he said laughing with amusement, Bixlow was amused by everything it seemed "you were really starting to get grouchy." He informed him.

Laxus looked at all of them "was I really that bad?" He asked leaning back, and closing his eyes.

"Oh no! No! No!" Freed

"Not at all!" Evergreen

"Yeah you were!" Bixlow

Freed and Evergreen turned to glare at him, but Laxus only chuckled, she was talking to him, his bad mood was over and he didn't seem to mind.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Someone dropped a key down on the bar counter next to Lucy's hand. She looked at it, and then up at the face of Laxus who was smiling in a very satisfied manner.

"What's this?" she asked confused, she picked the key up, examining it closely, it looked like an arrow; but a heart for the arrowhead.

He frowned at her "it's a gift" he stated, she raised her eyebrow at him "fooorrr?" She asked slowly.

"For you" he muttered, "we're friends right?" He huffed crossing his arms over his chest "friends can give each other gifts, can't they?" He looked almost hurt and Lucy laughed at his expression.

She got up and hugged him "thanks" she said, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back, suddenly Lucy heard a loud pitched squeal fill up the whole guild, everyone turned to face Mira who was standing there clutching her rag and giggling.

"Mira" Laxus growled. "Can it," he snapped to the white haired woman.

Lucy looked over at her friend, utterly confused, "are you okay?" she asked her, letting go of Laxus who grunted in annoyance. Concerned for Mira since the woman was leaning against the wall in a daze, Lucy raced around to the other side of bar and shook her shoulder.

"Mira… Mira!" She kept shaking her; suddenly Mira stood up really fast and wrung a towel in her hands

"Oh Lucy!" She said laughing embarrassed, "It's nothing!" She squealed "just thinking of something!" She was acting really strange, and Lucy backed away slowly, with wide eyes. Laxus sighed and rolled his eyes, he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted.

"Lulu!" Lucy heard Levy call out to her, she was half running through the guild to reach the bar "is everything okay over here?" She asked looking between three of them.

"Yeah I think so" Lucy told her.

"Of course! I'm fine!" Mira shouted waving at the worried Levy "Really!" She smiled at the two girls, they heard Laxus grunt again and walk off.

"You know…." Mira broke through the awkward silence, tapping a finger to her chin in thought "it's been a long time since all of us girls had a night together, we should do another sleep over!" She squealed, _and make Lucy spill!_ She thought.

Levy squealed with her, "that's a great idea!" She shouted and turned to Lucy "It's gonna be so much fun!" She told her, grabbing her hands and jumping up and down.

"Um, I've never been to a sleep over." Lucy told her not joining in on the jumping, they looked at her in shock.

" _WHAAAAT_?!" They both exclaimed, "How?" Mira asked "Why? Levi shrieked.

Lucy shrugged her shoulders "I didn't have time?" She told them almost apologetically.

"We're definitely going all out then!" Levy told her grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the guild doors "You set it up Mira! Meanwhile I'm taking Lucy shopping to grab what we need!" She called back over her shoulder.

Mira waved them good-bye and got to work getting some of the girls together and having them go to Fairy hills to set up.

Cana got the alcohol

Mira set up the decorations

Erza grabbed food and drinks

Evergreen and Juvia had somehow managed to get a ton of different sized mattresses and (with the exception of the area around the table), they had managed to jigsaw puzzle all of them to fit. They lay down layers of blankets on the mattresses and placed pillows to line around the walls and randomly here and there. By the time they were done the room looked like one big bed.

Lucy walked in gasped in surprise, at the giant bed, the decorations, the food, everything was amazing! Better than she thought so, grinning huge she jumped and face planted in the middle of the bed/floor.

"Miff iff uff beff meef uffer effer!" She muffled.

"Um, what did you say Lu-chan?" Levy asked, bending down and touching her shoulder.

Lucy lifted her head gasping for air "This is the best sleepover ever!" She said excitedly and then she grabbed Levy's hand they both jumped up and down on the mattresses, the other girls soon followed. Finally Levy and Lucy brought the bags in; they had bought a pair of pajama onesies for each girl.

They gave Mira giant bunny onesie with an overly large hoodie and ears sticking straight up, she looked too cute with her white hair and pale face, the two girls squealed ecstatically.

They gave Erza a panda onesie and forced her to sit down so they could braid her hair on either side of her face, Cana got the leopard onesie, Juvia got s shark. Evergreen a cat and they painted a nose and whiskers on her face, Levy was a dinosaur and Lucy got a unicorn.

Soon they were sitting in a circle passing the wine bottle around (Cana had her own, or a couple) pigging out and talking about the most embarrassing crap on the planet.

* * *

Meanwhile a bunch of the guys from the guild had made some form of human ladder outside the window; since the girls were on the second story so they had to improvise.

"Are they doing anything?" Jet and Droy whispered together.

Natsu was peeking through the window, Elfman holding everyone up "how did you guys get me to do this?" He whined.

"I thought for sure they'd be fighting" he whispered, more to himself but the guys heard him and deadpanned.

"What are they wearing?" Krov asked

Before Natsu could speak someone growled out of the darkness "What the hell do you guys think you're doing?" Gajeel and Laxus were standing there arms crossed over their chest, Elfman threw everybody down on the ground and took off saying something about how spying wasn't manly.

The other guys turned to face the two men, white faced with fear.

Gajeel launched and started throwing them away from the building and anyone who tried to run got caught by Laxus who kept knocking heads around until soon a pile of the bodies was at Laxus feet and the guys that Gajeel threw off were scrambling away.

"What the fuck is wrong with these people" Gajeel muttered.

Laxus shrugged and picked up the pile carrying the remainder boys off, and dumping them into the river where they floated down stream with bruises on their faces.

* * *

During all this the girls didn't hear any of the commotion going on outside, and they decided to play truth or dare, but if you didn't take the challenge you had to drink.

"Truth or dare Lucy." Mira pointed to her.

Lucy sat back "dare" she grinned.

"I dare you… to tell me what's going on with you and Laxus!" She squealed, the other girls faced Lucy with looks of shock on their faces. Lucy's mirrored theirs "I have no idea what you're talking about" she said genuinely.

"Oh please" Mira waved her hands at her "As if you didn't notice." Mira was gushing.

"No I really didn't… should I?" She asked innocently.

"Well he is nicer to you than other people.." Levy said slowly "and he gave you a present!" Mira pointed out wiggling around in excitement.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" Lucy said pulling her keys off her belt and flipping through them until she found the newest addition; it was the sign of Sagitta. "Open, gate of the Arrow! Sagitta!" Lucy called opening the gate, she didn't know what to expect, but she didn't expect a toddler with bright brown eyes, brunette hair and in an absolutely adorable horse onesie. "Hi Hi princess! I'm the daughter of Sagittarius! Sagitta or Sage for short" The little girl beamed brightly, curtsying.

There was a huge chorus of _AWEEEEEESS_! "You're so cute!" Mira shrieked pinching her face; Sage turned and gave Lucy a hug "Oh my gerd!" Lucy and Levy squealed.

They started playing with the girl's hair, they gave her cat whiskers and a cat nose to match Evergreen and the two did nosy kisses, all the girls danced and the little spirit seemed to adore the attention.

"My dad says it's past my bedtime" Sage said eventually yawning and curling up on Lucy's lap to fall asleep, another chorus of _awwwwweeesss_ sounded and Lucy; smiling sent the little spirit back to her world.

"I didn't know Sagittarius had a daughter" Lucy said thoughtfully "Like father like daughter though, with the horse costume and all!" She said laughing

"Don't think you're getting out of your dare Lucy!" Mira suddenly jumped on her, wagging a finger in her face, "now _spill_!"

Lucy shrugged and tried to ward off the weird aura around the white haired mage, it disturbed her "I really don't know what you're talking about, we're just friends," She giggled at Mira's downcast expression.

Mira then eyed her "I think he likes you" She said narrowing her eyes and then they got big and full of hearts and she started swooning over babies.

"I doubt it" Lucy said laughing "Laxus doesn't seem the type to go for one girl."

"I don't knowwww" Evergreen said knowingly, Levy jumped on that "what do you know?" She asked smiling mischievously, Evergreen shrugged not revealing anything, and Laxus would kill her if she opened her trap.

Lucy changed the subject "what about you and Freed, Mira? Or you and Gajeel Levy?" She asked with scrutiny, both girls blushed.

After a while the conversation died down and soon they were all asleep in one part of the room or another, Levy and Lucy cuddled close but both had their own blanket because Lucy didn't like to share, and she also liked to curl up underneath it like it was some kind of cave.

* * *

She woke up some time in the middle of the night, thinking she heard something outside, sleepily rubbing her eyes, she looked out the window and thought she saw two shadows. She recognized Gajeel's but not the other and curious she wrapped the large comforter around her like a big burrito and crept outside.

It was bitingly cold, it was in between Autumn and Winter seasons and she kinda wished she had not only left her onesie on but also had slippers, all the girls had donned their actual pajamas and hers was an oversized shirt and shorts, so she was freezing, even with the blanket wrapped around her.

She peered around the corner of the building but didn't see anything, she was walking the length of the building trying to find one of the two figures and was about to give up and resign to the fact that she had been seeing things when someone spoke softly behind her "what are you doing up Blondie?" Laxus asked

She turned around, heart beating; he had surprised her "Oh!" She let out a gasp of relief "I thought I heard something" she told him.

He walked over and leaned against the wall studying her, suddenly she felt the pressure of his gaze and the evenings conversation came floating into her mind making her blush. _Snap out of it_ , she thought, _don't let Mira get to you, it's not like that_.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked him finally, successfully shrugging Mira's words out of her head.

He shrugged "A bunch of the guys were spying and Gajeel and I took care of it, I decided to go ahead and help him out since he wanted to patrol and make sure it didn't happen again, he's really over-protective of Levy and you since he see you as a sister." He answered her.

"Oh lord" Lucy muttered "as soon as the other girls find out, those boys are gonna get it, I'm not even sure I want to tell them, I'm guessing they got punished enough."

Laxus nodded then straightened up when he saw her shivering. 'You cold?" He asked.

"Yeah" she said through chattered teeth she kept standing on one foot at a time only shifting when the one on the ground got too cold "That's what I get for being barefoot and wearing this," she showed him her pjs grinning. He chuckled; then he was in front of her in an instant, enveloping his arms over her… over her blanket. She stopped breathing and she could feel her heart hammering and damnit she knew he could too.

But it felt nice, and she leaned into him, feeling him tighten around her, his chin resting on the top of her head.

Lucy yawned and wiggled loose after a bit, she didn't want to leave, she was starting to feel a certain way but she was getting tired "thanks" she mumbled.

"No problem" he said huskily.

"I'm going back to bed, thanks for watching out for us, but if they come back, they'll get the beating of their lives and I don't think they'll be that stupid to go for it twice" she said giggling, he smirked, "night Blondie"

"Night" she said waving to him "Oh and thanks for keeping me warm" she added.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

"LISTEN UP YOU BRATS!" the guild quieted down, Master Makarov was standing on the railing of the second floor, looking down at them all, behind him were Erza, Mira and Laxus, all patiently waiting for the place to settle down.

Eventually he had their attention; "Now! The S-class trials are coming up, and since we have a shortage of S-class mages, I've decided to choose three! This year as certain times calls for certain measures" he held up three fingers for emphasis "three mages to become S-class, those who qualify are Grey Fullbuster! Cana Alberona! Freed Justine! Bixlow! Natsu Dragneel! Gajeel Redfox! Juvia Lockser and Lucy…" He looked at the blonde girl blinking, everyone turned in her direction confused, so was she.

"What is your last name Lucy?" He asked her

She laughed "Oh! My last name is… Love!" She called out, only the three dragon slayers could have picked up on the hesitation… three if Natsu wasn't so oblivious.

Alright!" Master said proudly "Lucy Love!" He pointed at all the contestants, "Here are the rules! The first part will consist of you getting past the finish line on Tenrou Island, much like our previous games in earlier years, but!" He pointed one finger in the air dramatically "Only the first three teams to make it across will qualify for the second round! So!" He gazed at them "pick your partners and get ready, the event will be in three weeks!" With that he disappeared into his office and the S-class mages at the top went with him.

Suddenly there was a buzz of excitement circling the guild and everyone pairing up. Natsu and Grey decided to actually team up, which would have been great if they didn't fight each other all the time. Juvia was beside herself for not being chosen to be Grey's partner and Cana consoling her decided to partner with her instead. Freed and Bixlow partnered, obviously.

Lucy knew her partner was going to be before he could even ask "Gajeel, we're partners right?" She called over to him, with a thumbs up, grinning, he gave her a thumbs up in return.

Those who were staying at the guild, promised to root for their favorite teams. Levy swung her fist around Lucy's neck and then Gajeel's in a hug that left the iron dragon slayer blushing "I'm rooting for you guys!" She said excitedly.

Lucy smiled at the bluenette "When do you want to start training?" she turned to Gajeel, asking him.

He smirked and folded his arms over his chest "Now, obviously" he told her in a matter of fact tone.

"Sounds good to me!" She replied; feeling pumped up.

They wasted no time training, they were up early; the next morning, Gajeel almost thought she wouldn't be able to keep up with him but was surprised by her endurance, he was actually having a hard time keeping up with her.

"You did training before?" He asked after they rested.

"Yeah, you didn't hear that first day I arrived to Fairy Tail?" She asked him "I trained every day for a year before I got here. Climbing mountains, moving boulders, running, sparring with Loke, Practicing meditation and magic with Capricorn, even when I got here, my training may have slowed down a little bit" she said thoughtfully "but… I still have been training every evening, on the outskirts of Fairy Tail." She said shrugging "old habits die hard" she told him sheepishly.

Gajeel raised a brow, seeming like he was mulling over something for bit before he came to a conclusion "we're gonna do training your way" he announced to her "on the outskirts of town, besides," he hooked a thumb at the number of mages participating in the trials training themselves, except for Natsu and Grey who were bickering as usual. "We don't want anyone else to watch us, looking for weaknesses." Gajeel grinned at her

Lucy nodded, it was a great idea and she told him as much "Alright I'll show you the area I train at."

Levy hopped down from where she was reading and watching them every now and then, she didn't hear the exchange but she was following regardless. Laxus stepped from the doorway having watched them the entire time and hearing their conversation "You mind if I tag along?" He asked

Gajeel and Lucy exchanged glances and raised eyebrows but shrugged and motioned him to follow. The three followed Lucy's footsteps a mile outside of town, deep in the woods, Laxus noting how close she was to his home and wondering how he never figured out she actually trained near him.

Lucy led them to a clearing, a circle surrounded by trees; Lucy brought out Loke and Capricorn and instructed them about what they were going to do.

"You ready for this?" She asked Gajeel, he nodded in response. Loke and Capricorn stood off to the side, waiting. Lucy ran toward the circle of trees, at a weird angle she jumped, her foot hitting the first tree, the second foot bounced off another and she started going in a circle eventually leaning till she was almost completely sideways. Running in a circle along the trunks going higher and higher till she was close to the top, then she sprang forward using both feet; she pushed off the last trunk, spinning in the air grabbing a branch and twisting, she acrobatically brought herself up and was firmly planted on top of the bark of the branch.

She motioned for Gajeel to do the same, while she gracefully leaped from branch to branch to make room for him.

He started to run but skidded and almost tripped over himself; colliding with the tree, everyone roared with laughter.

"I'd like to see you try Thunderbreath!" Gajeel shouted taking out his frustration at Laxus.

Laxus squinted his eyes at him, but shrugged, "should be no problem," he told him, he walked to the middle of the clearing; Lucy was hunkered down on one of the branches she was on, watching them intently. Laxus ran at the trees, he successfully hit the first two trees but wobbled and landed on his ass.

Everyone laughed, but Gajeel's was the loudest, Laxus sprang up in a stance, fists raised and Gajeel snapped into action, they were ready to go and launched at each other but something fell from the sky right into the middle of their path.

Both men panicked and tried stop, but couldn't, and then something hit them both and sent them flying back.

"This isn't - _let's show our manliness by brawling time_!" Lucy shouted at them, her hammer at her side "This is training time!" She looked back and forth at both of them, while Levy stifled a giggle, Capricorn nodded in approval and Loke looked at her in admiration.

"Now come on guys!" She scolded lightly.

"Sorry" Both muttered.

She smiled softly and affectionately at both of them, softening up "okay then, let's get started!"

Lucy explained her training routine to Gajeel, she taught him how to do what she did with trees, the faster he went and the less hesitation he had; the more success he would get.

They ran laps through the forest, following a path she had made, Laxus eventually joining them and Levy stayed behind to talk to Capricorn while Loke popped in and out on his own, he usually helped her with her physical training but with Laxus and Gajeel there, he wasn't really needed.

She taught them acrobatics, had them running laps, racing, and swimming across the lake. Both men were easily impressed by her determination, and she told them while she was alone there was nothing else to do.

They taught her sparring, Laxus had them lift heavy logs and run the trail.

While the two men sparred, their session coming to a close, Lucy sat in meditation with Capricorn focusing her magic in and out like a pulse.

* * *

The day of the trials came up too soon, the pair were confident that they would be two of the three chosen as S-class mages, they ticked the hours down as the boat lazily sailed, bobbing over the ocean waves, Gajeel and Natsu tipping over the side with motion sickness.

Lucy patted Gajeels back worriedly _crap we're gonna be behind_ , she thought, and sure enough as soon as they were close enough to the island; Freed and Bixslow took off ahead of everyone else when Freed put up his runes.

By the time they got out of it, the two guys were in a fight with Erza, according to Gajeel's sense of smell so they looked down the other available paths. Lucy stopped Gajeel, "we can't fight Laxus he knows our moves, he's trained with us, and we didn't event think about that. that leaves Mira, or the obstacle path." She told him, Gajeel nodded in agreement and they headed down the path they knew would lead to Mira

The she-devil shrieked and spiraled toward them, Gajeel formed his fist into iron and punched her back, when she let off a blast of dark energy Lucy sprang over Gajeel before he could get hit and knocked her own power back at her with her hammer.

The dark ball of energy hit Mira sending her spinning and landing hard on the ground, skidding in the dirt.

"GOOOOALLL!" Lucy shouted raising both arms in the air.

"Don't you mean home run?" Gajeel asked with a look of amusement on his face.

"Oh yeah!" Lucy said grinning brightly at him, and then they both prepared themselves as Mira stood and flew at them again.

Gajeel sent both fists flying, making Mira dodge them while Lucy ran along his steely arms and hit again with her hammer sending her flying backward again, The She-devil rose in the air high above them and sent another dark aura energy at them, Lucy knocked that one away, and then again as Mira sent energy ball after energy ball. Lucy was starting to get tired "Aries!" She called and the pink haired Celestial spirit popped up next to her "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Aries chanted.

Lucy grit her teeth, Gajeel sprang in front of her and started attacking Mira with his fists again.

"Go cover that area over there with your wool," she instructed Aries and with an apology Aries raced over and began working. Lucy jumped on one of Gajeels arms just as he sent it flying up at Mira agin, he sent the other fist distracting the she-devil and by the time she knocked that one out of the way, it was too late. Lucy flew up into the air and slammed her hammer against Mira sending her hurdling downward and into a huge web of pink wool, and the more the She-devil struggled the tighter it got and the more Aries surrounded her with it until she finally gave up. "You pass!" She said to them finally and nodding at them, reverting back her original form.

"Now let me go." She told them, they complied and she turned herself back into the she-devil and hissed " _go, before I change my mind_!" She commanded them, Gajeel and Lucy wasted no time getting out of her sight.

They came across an abyss, the other side fifty feet away from them, Lucy brought out Sagittarius, "Can you shoot an arrow on the other side so we can get across?" She asked him

"hmmm, _Moshi Moshi_ , my arrows will not be able to hold you up, especially him." He pointed to Gajeel.

Lucy felt defeated, until she remembered "what about Sage?" She asked him

Sagittarius smiled knowingly, bowing he disappeared and his daughter stood in his place, she was holding behind her back a giant arrow that was silver with the heart shaped metal arrowhead the color pink, she curtsied "Hi! Hi! What do you need me to do Princess?!" Sage asked fiercely, Lucy smiled and patted her head.

She explained what was needed and she and Gajeel made quick work tying a rope on the end of the arrow, then they stood back and watched as sage floated in the air, a bow as long as Lucy shimmering into existence, brilliantly silver and floating.

Sage nocked the arrow then grabbed the string with both hands pushing against it, and pushed the bow with both feet angling it she shot the arrow, it landed on the other side, deep into rocky surface. Lucy and Gajeel cheered

"Did I do okay princess?" Sage asked Lucy, Lucy picked up the little girl and swung her around

"Of course you did! You can go back now." Lucy told her.

Sage nodded "but before I do, I just wanted to let you know, if you need my arrow again, call on me. That's it's normal form, but if you put your own magical energy into it, it gets bigger. The more magic you put in the bigger it gets, the bigger the explosion!" Sage told her excitedly, emphasizing explosion with her arms spread out like wings.

Lucy gave her thumbs up, "will do kiddo."

The pair crossed the abyss and could see the finish line, when suddenly the paths intercepted each other and they came face to face with Cana and Juvia.

" _Drip, drip, drop_." Juvia said facing them, her body turning into water. Cana had her cards ready too and shot them out toward them. Gajeel blocked the cards turning his arm into a giant shield, but Juvia's attack was harder to block since it went around his shield and knocked him backward, then the water streaked toward Lucy.

Lucy dove out of the way in time but the water whipped back to Juvia and she sent her water slicer, Lucy kept dodging her attacks until she stepped straight into a puddle.

She looked down "Aquarius is gonna have my ass for this" she muttered plunging the key into the muddy water "Open gate of the water bearer! Aquarius!" She called.

Aquarius came forth and without a word, water against water clashed.

Gajeel was up and fighting off Cana, Juvia became much easier to deal with. Her and Aquarius fought a battle of wills on par with each other, but Juvia was wavering in and out of water form; having to concentrate against the celestial spirit, she eventually turned solid, and Gajeel having defeated Cana, saw his chance and knocked her out.

Aquarius turned to Lucy who gave the celestial spirit a defiant look, " _We'll talk about this later_ " Aquarius hissed.

"Fine by me" Lucy shot back. She turned to her fallen comrades, "let's pick them up and take them" Lucy told Gajeel.

"Seriously?" He asked her.

"Yes, seriously" Lucy gave him a dark look that asked him to go against her, he sighed picking the two girls up and carried them over toward the finish line, it wasn't that hard they were literally right there.

They could hear someone crashing around behind them, Natsu and Grey raced past them to the finish line just as Lucy and Gajeel were about to.

Gajeel and Lucy looked at each other, well that was that.

Gajeel put the pair down next to the campfire and grabbed something for him and Lucy to eat, which she thanked him for. Mira, Laxus and Erza were already there waiting and Master Makarov was looking at everyone intently.

"So…" He said clasping his hands behind his back, smiling at all of them "The first to make it across the line were," he gestured to the first team "Bixlow and Freed Justine." He pointed to the second team "Natsu Dragneel and Grey Fulbuster, were the second to cross the finish line... _but_!" He said suddenly before anyone could celebrate.

"I must say, if Lucy and Gajeel had not picked up their fallen comrades they would have passed second themselves, so... I'm sorry Natsu and Grey but Lucy and Gajeel pass before you. They are considered the second team to pass."

Natsu and Grey fell over in a daze and everyone started celebrating the mages who passed, Gajeel and Lucy high fived "GOOOOAAAAL!" she shouted raising her arms in the air, Gajeel face palmed.

Tomorrow would be the second part of the S-Class Trials.

 **Author note: Once upon a time I yelled GOAL accidentally while watching football, and everyone gave me the weirdest look ever and asked "don't you mean touchdown?" So when I got to that scene I thought I'd add that in for giggles, hope you got a laugh out of it.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

 _ **Author Note: I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to be up, I have had a ton of work to do lately and will still be pretty busy until after this weekend, but wanted to at least satisfy anyone waiting for this story with at least one chapter and also let ya'll know I will have two more Lalu fanfictions up here soon as well [: I want to focus on giving my stories more depth too, so expect longer chapters starting with this one and in the future**._

Master Makarov looked at each one of the contestants slowly, observing. If he thought of a winner he could bet Lucy, Grey or Freed would be one of the firsts, they had the intelligence, the brawn and the heart, while Gajeel, Natsu and Bickslow had Brawns and heart, three for three would win any day in his book, but he had no idea, it was still anyone's game despite his bets.

Lucy felt tense, she didn't know what to expect. After yesterday's trial she could only take small guesses at what Master had planned for them today, she could feel everyone else's tension, and hers was steadily rising. Gildarts had shown up just this morning, so there was definitely something planned with him thrown into the ring. She racked her brain, trying to imagine what the future would hold, would they be battling him one on one? Maybe Master would send them off and have Gildarts track them down in a hunting game, would they still be able to partner or force to go solo? She also wondered what everyone else was thinking, especially the master.

 _Ugh, quit over-thinking_ , she scolded herself, _it's not gonna get you anywhere._

"Alright, listen up!" Master Makarov finally cut the silence after a few grueling minutes. "To pass the next round, you must search the island for the grave of Fairy Tail's founder; Mavis Vermilion.," he told them, "you may choose to partner with someone, or go your separate ways" he smirked. "That could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it; or how loyal you and your partner are, but that's up to you." He waved in a dismissive manner and kept speaking "The first four to reach their destination will move on to the final trial. You have 6 hours to find it or you fail, regardless."

"Now" He stroked his chin thoughtfully "since Freed and Bickslow came in first yesterday, their advantage will be that they can go as of right now." Freed and Bickslow wasted no time in taking off, "the second team" he motioned to Gajeel and Lucy "will wait ten minutes before going after them, and the third team" he finally motioned to Natsu and Grey "will wait an extra 5 after you two take off."

 _That'll give me some time to think it over_ , Lucy thought as she sat down, she didn't want to waste energy bouncing around like Gajeel and Natsu were doing being patient wasn't their strong suit, Grey looked thoughtfully over at her and sat down as well.

"Are we going to partner today?" She asked Gajeel .

He flashed a cocky grin "not today, sorry Bunny girl." He replied, she stuck her tongue out at him, but didn't argue. Grey was still watching her as she picked a stick up and started writing in the ground, tracing words and symbols, trying to keep what she was thinking from truly going into the surface, after a minute she had it figured out, Master's riddle.

When the ten minutes were up Gajeel sped off and she was about to when someone gently wrapped a hand around her wrist, she turned in surprise to see it was Grey "if you wouldn't mind waiting, I'd like to partner with you" he told her

Lucy cocked her head to the side while she mulled it over, finally she flashed him her signature brilliant smile "sounds good to me" Master Makarov watched them curiously, he was silently grateful Laxus stayed behind at the camp with Erza and Mira, even though soon they would be sent out to distract the contestants, if Laxus had been there… he didn't really choose to think about it, he noticed the way he watched Lucy and he had to say, his grandson couldn't have chosen a better woman to pursue, but that poor girl… He sighed.

Natsu was too busy bouncing around and complaining loudly to notice the exchange between Grey and Lucy, after the five minutes were up the trio took off, Natsu going his own way and Lucy and Grey taking off in another direction.

"You already know where you're going, don't you?" Grey asked her.

She giggled "you got me pegged don't you? Is that why you partnered with me?" she asked him, teasingly.

He smiled "not the only reason" he told her, she laughed and they kept going, oblivious to what he meant.

They didn't get far before a large creature crashed through the forest straight into their path, Lucy sprang into the air and bounced off its head before she collided with it, and Grey used his ice make to force a pathway, and slid underneath and around it's legs before it crushed him underfoot.

The creature snarled and whipped its head around to glare at them before opening its jaws wide and snapping at them. Lucy was already twisted though, Hammer out and she swung, the monster toppled over and slipped on Grey's ice, "Ice make! Wall!" He shouted, effectively stopping it from bowling him over, and slamming into the barricade.

Lucy dropped down beside him, they gave each other one look before shrugging and continuing, meanwhile Erza, Mira and Laxus threw themselves into the ring, it wasn't long before Mira found Gajeel and Freed who had accidently run into each other, and all three were caught in a battle.

Natsu had smelled Erza and went after her purposely, and Laxus was using his own nose to follow Lucy's scent. He had planned on giving her a hard time, but when he caught a whiff of a certain ice mage, burning curiosity and a mix of uncontrollable rage built up inside of him, what the hell was he doing with her? They barely knew each other.

It didn't take him long to find the pair had just finished off a beast, they had continued their search for the grave. He off hand noted in the back of his mind that they were actually heading in the right direction, and he followed them silently, waiting to see what they would do. Maybe it was a tad creepy to be stalking the girl, but he really didn't care, his feelings of possession reasoned well enough with him and left him guilt free.

 _He was following them, because he was supposed to, and biding his time for the right moment to ambush them, it was all part of the trial._ Yep.

Lucy and Grey stopped before the entrance to pathway E, "how did you even figure this out?" Grey asked her curiously.

Lucy looked sheepish as they entered the path and it led them to a cavern "I'm.. not gonna tell you," she told him "you're lucky I let you tag along" she grinned, semi turning it around on him, but he took her words seriously instead.

He took her hand and squeezed it, earning a curious glance and a slight blush at the contact "Thank you." He told her, heartfelt.

"Well what do we have here?" Laxus stepped from the shadows, he had silently surpassed them and had been waiting, he startled both mages. Lucy almost rolled her eyes at his cheesy cliché line, after the two got over their shock.

She almost flinched though with the penetrating stare he sent in their direction; especially directed at Grey, _what has his panties in a bunch_? She asked herself.

Suddenly Laxus was in between them, and had knocked them away from each other with a lightning blast, he had turned to Grey while she recovered, and the ice mage threw up a shield to protect himself from another blast, she could feel he had been holding back but _damn_.

Lucy brought out her one of her strongest keys "Open, gate of the Lion! Leo!" She called, and in a flash of brilliant gold, Loke appeared

"What can I do for you my princess?" He asked her bowing, taking her hand he placed a chaste kiss on the back of it, she rolled her eyes, what the hell was wrong with boys?

"Help me distract him" she pulled out another key, Laxus was giving Grey's ice shield a brutal beating, Grey had had enough though and leaped over it with his ice lance but Laxus had quickly dodged it, Lucy needed to act fast. "Open, gate of the ram! Aries!" She swiped the key down and the pink haired girl appeared, shivering as usual "y-yes princess?" She asked shakily.

"Cover the entrance." She told her while she flipped her hammer from her back and took her stance "make sure no one gets through, and if she has trouble Loke" she looked to the leader of the zodiacs "your priority is to help her, we don't need anyone trying to sneak past and finishing this trial while we're stuck in this battle."

"If you don't mind me princes but it seems Laxus and Grey are pre-occupied, you could finish it yourself" he pointed out.

Lucy shook her head "I won't abandon him" she told him and with that she took off, Aries dashed to the entrance and began to build a wooly wall and Loke was hot on Lucy's heels.

Laxus was paying such close attention to Grey he hadn't even felt Lucy closing in on him and barely moved out of the way when her hammer struck his thigh and sent him flying, he flipped and landed in a crouch but was knocked sideways, by another hit of some other magic entirely. "Regulus blast!" He heard someone call out.

He looked up to see now he was facing three opponents. Grey looked exhausted but resolved and Lucy looked fierce and determined, whoever Loke (that lion spirit of hers), looked slightly over-protective and kept casting Lucy glances, but never took his concentration off of him.

"Lightning dragon!" He reared back "ROOOAAR!" He bellowed; shooting a blast of electric energy at them, Lucy brought her hammer up and shielded her herself but was still sent flying. Grey's newest ice shield was shattered; Loke had leapt out of the way in time, but was quickly on the ground and had appeared suddenly behind Lucy gripping her shoulders, stabilizing her before she could fall backwards.

"Thanks Loke" she muttered, keeping her concentration on Laxus, _damnit_ , she thought. She needed to come up with a plan fast, or someone was bound to discover this location, she growled in frustration.

Lucy's battle cry rang out as she smashed her hammer into the earth and the slice of its power bee-lined straight to Laxus; he brought both arms up and blocked it effectively.

Lucy ground her teeth, she was on edge. She felt Grey had made it to her and was standing right next to her, Laxus suddenly flashed and was right there in front of him knocking him backward and sending him flying, before anyone could, Lucy felt horrified.

She swung her hammer around but he flashed again and was standing in front of Grey who was doubled over, clutching his stomach in pain, gasping for air.

She was about to send her hammer flying towards his head when Loke placed a hand on her "Lucy" he said quietly, she turned to him, she felt a pang of agony and pity for Grey. Laxus had barely attacked her, the ice mage looked in bad shape, why was Loke stopping her? But before she could protest he did something completely unexpected.

"I want to profess my love to you!" He shouted getting down on one knee.

" _WHAT_?!" She screamed, this was not the time for this! What the fuck?! "Loke!" She shouted at him, very annoyed. "Get up, there's no time for this!" She said grabbing his arm, he was suddenly up and grabbed her close, "when he comes after me, hit him, and then take Grey and run." He whispered so softly she could barely hear him.

A flash of blonde hair raced past her and Laxus suddenly had Loke up by his suit and reared his fast back to smash the other man in his face. Lucy acted quickly, and she swung her hammer around hitting him right across the head sending him forward and staggering, she had no time to see if he was okay, instead she grabbed Grey around the waist, supporting under his shoulder and quickly made her way through the tunnels to another cavern, only looking back to see that he had fallen to the ground.

Her and Grey finally made it to Mavis's grave and she set him down gently, he put a hand on her shoulder "thanks for not leaving me" he smiled through his bruised, beaten face before he slumped from exhaustion.

Master Makarov was already there "Have I passed?" She quickly asked him, he was sitting peacefully with his eyes closed but opened one and nodded. Lucy nodded in return "I'm going back through, I hit Laxus pretty hard and I want to bring him here, I just want to make sure my spot is secure." She explained.

Master smiled affectionately "gave him good beating huh?" He chuckled.

Lucy turned bright red "I hit him the back of his head, but he was being pretty ruthless toward Grey, and I had no other options." She told him.

"M _mmmmm_ " Makarov hummed thoughtfully before waving her off "go ahead, your spot is secure."

"Thank you" Lucy told him bowing respectively before racing back through the tunnels, Aries had long since gone back to the Celestial spirit world, but Loke had stayed up until just now, and she worried what had happened between the two of them, she would ask him, and then ask him what that whole scene was about.

She found Laxus passed out on the cavern floor, and she touched the back of his head gently, she looked up to see Bickslow running into the cavern, he slowed then stopped when he spotted the two of them. "You want help me take him to her grave?" She asked him. The seith mage nodded wordlessly, and reaching over he scooped Laxus up.

Lucy fell into step behind him and watched Laxus carefully, her gaze was gentle as she looked over at him, ever since he had apologized they had gotten to be pretty good friends, and she was worried about him, worried about why he was acting so strangely. When Bickslow had set him down she sat next to him while he went off to talk to Master Makarov. Lucy reached over to move the hair from his face and without thinking; her fingers traced his scar tentatively.

A hand shot up and wrapped itself around her wrist, and Laxus opened his eyes to stare at her, Lucy squeaked in surprise.

"Hey blondie" he muttered quietly, "I see you guys made it." He noted, glancing at Grey.

Lucy huffed "yeah," she confirmed "I don't know what you have against Grey or what that was all about, but it was kind of unnerving." She told him, almost glaring at him, it was completely unnecessary in her eyes.

Laxus looked guilty and turned away from her "Yeah you're right" he said "I'll apologize to ice brain later."

Lucy rolled her eyes halfheartedly, but when he released her hand she patted his shoulder, and he sat up watching her as she stretched and laid down "I could use a nap" she mumbled staring straight up sleepily.

Laxus chuckled "I really did a number on you guys" He teased.

"I feel worse for Grey" Lucy commented, she could feel his guilt overflowing and she heard him get up and walk away from her, Lucy watched him frowning.

 **Laxus POV**

He had no idea what just happened, he barely remembered half of it. Like it had all been a dream, guided by possessiveness and blind rage, all he smelled was Lucy's scent on Grey and his on her and it sent him over the edge.

The celestial spirits words flashed through his mind. _"I know what's going on, and you're not marking her for yourself, she will never be your dragon mate. You will never claim her!" The man had bellowed at him "I won't allow my princess to be in the hands of someone like you!"_ He then had smashed his fist into Laxus face and Laxus had _actually_ passed out from it, although he figured Lucy's Hammer hitting him hadn't helped.

He rubbed the back of his head tentatively, wincing at the pain. Marking? What the hell was that? He'd also be damned if that punk was going to tell him what to do, he wasn't going to stay away from her, but he wanted to hold back for now… until he could get together with Freed and figure out what the hell was going on with him, they needed to do some research.

All parties looked up to the sounds of a scrabble between Gajeel and speak of the devil; Freed who were cat fighting and waving their hands at each other, pushing, pulling, tripping each other to get to the finish line.

"Get out of the way you algae haired freak!" Gajeel roared throwing Freed behind him, but was stopped by a barrier, his face mushed against something invisible.

"I suggest you immediately cease your actions you… pierced animal buffoon!" Freed retorted, he had put up a measly wall and walked past Gajeel; who leaped over it easily enough.

"Is that all you can come up with?" Gajeel snarled he reached out grabbing Freed by the back of his collar and flung him backwards then raced to the finish line but Freed dove and they both crashed to the ground, fighting while crawling. Each had an arm outstretched attempting to reach Mavis's grave.

Everyone roared in laughter, while they got closer and closer, until finally one of them had finally touched it.

* * *

Those who made it were standing far apart in a loose circle with Gildarts in the center; a ring of light enclosed them all in.

"The rules are simple with this one!" Master Makarov gruffly explained "This is a test of endurance, Gildarts will display his power to try and push one of you out of the ring, the first person who gets thrown out fails the trial and the other three will pass."

Everyone was looking intently back and forth between Gildarts and Makarov, while Makarov continued "you may choose whatever means to keep yourself in the ring, you may fight amongst each other, if you think it will strengthen your odds, but Gildarts cannot touch you, or any of you him."

They all nodded in understanding, and Makarov raised his arm then chopped the air as he shouted "BEGIN!"

Gildarts formed his magic above him in a great ball of light, and they felt a force, a pressure, pushing them back.

Lucy looked around at everyone, Gajeel had won the weird altercation between him and Freed, he bore his arms and legs into iron, digging them into the earth, and there was no uprooting him for sure. She looked toward Grey who had one arm raised to block the blinding light from his eyes, bearing all his weight into the ground, Bickslow was essentially doing the same thing.

Lucy suddenly up and jumped toward Gajeel and wrapped herself around him and held on tight. "What the fuck are you doing Bunny girl?!" He snarled.

She laughed "I'm _enduring_!" She snarled back and held on for dear life, the other two saw her idea and ran forward "fuck" she heard him mutter.

"You keep me from flying away and I'll keep them off you" she grinned fiercely at him.

Gajeel nodded, taking one of his arms out of the ground he wrapped her in it and held her with his steel, she flicked her hammer out and batted the two boys away from them, they were sent flying and Bickslow was an inch too close to being out of the ring; Grey fared a little better.

There was a moment everyone stared at each other silently, Lucy had her hammer raised and ready, Bickslow and Grey were deciding on whether or not they should try to run at them again or face each other.

They all felt Gildarts increase his power sending the two boys sliding backwards some, even Gajeel had moved back in the earth about an inch.

The two boys saw it and they both attacked them hitting them with all the force they had, pushing Gajeel further and further back while Lucy desperately tried to beat them off " _Argh_!" She screamed in frustration, successfully connecting with Grey and sent him away from her somewhat, she did the same to Bickslow.

Lucy sighed and put her hammer down, they were getting closer and closer to the edge, and Bickslow and Grey were going to win if they kept this up, they were getting nowhere.

"What are you doing Lucy?!" Gajeel yelled.

"Grab the hammer." She told him.

"What?!" His eyes widened disbelievingly.

"You heard me, trust me, grab the hammer and I'll hold onto you." She looked at him seriously "please trust me Gajeel." She pleaded.

He blinked in astonishment, but did as he was told. Lucy wrapped her arms around his waist and held on for dear life as Gildarts power increased to where the boys could barely hold on, they weren't going to attack anymore which was a relief, and Gajeel grabbed the hilt of her hammer, just in time too because even with his iron in the ground Gildarts power would have for sure pushed him back and over the edge.

Gajeel and everyone outside the ring looked shocked when the weapon didn't budge, it was like it was rooted miles in the earth and as he held his hands turned into steel and molded together while Lucy clung to him, and eyes shut tight.

Then suddenly it was over, the noise abruptly ended, the silence palpable. Lucy opened her eyes to see that Grey was the one who lost.

* * *

Congratulations on our newest S-class mages!" Makarov announced, they all still felt beaten up , even after a couple days of rest as they journeyed back to Magnolia. Lucy slumped in a chair head tipped back in exhaustion, Gajeel face planted on the floor, pretty much all the participants felt exhausted beyond belief and fell over here and there throughout the guild hall.

Everyone had tried prying from her about why Gajeel hadn't been able to lift her hammer, and Lucy could not answer them because she didn't know herself, she told them all she knew was that she was the only one who could pick it, which is why she didn't let anyone hold it, Erza had nodded in sudden understanding at that one.

Apparently on another note; Natsu had never even found Mavis's grave, despite all his determination. He found Erza instead and they had duked it out for a while, he was more determined to beat her, and forgotten all about it, and he was now beating himself up for it, and everyone endured his complaining the entire way home.

"Shut it flame brain!" Gajeel's muffled roar could be heard through the floor, he was tired of listening to the Fire dragon slayer.

"What did you call me!" Natsu jumped up, ready to rampage; Erza reached over and neatly knocked him out. "I'm tired of listening to him too." She muttered, and everyone finally sighed in relief, some rubbing their temples from the headaches he had caused.

Lucy didn't care, she eventually got up and trudged her way out the door with a halfhearted wave, she was going home, and going to bed, and she wasn't getting out of it for a week.

Laxus in the meantime pulled a dejected Freed aside, and when he looked at him curiously Laxus motioned for him to be quiet and follow him. When they got a safe distance, safe enough from prying dragon slayers ears, even though Gajeel was too tired to notice, only then did Laxus reveal what he wanted Freed for.

"I need you to help me research something." He told him.

Freed nodded "yes, of course, you can count on my help for anything."

"I need you to help me look up what a dragon mate is."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

 **Author note: I didn't expect to get another chapter up this soon, seeing as how crazy things have been around here lately, but today was the last day of craziness. So here's the next chapter, enjoy! :)**

Laxus looked down to the bottom of his beer mug, they had spent weeks doing research with hundreds of books finding tidbits of information here and there, he pinched the bridge of his nose tight and squeezed then released; hoping it would ease the tension and pain enveloping his brain.

Only two people knew besides him, Freed and Bickslow, he didn't want to tell Evergreen, he didn't think she'd be much help. Hell Bickslow wasn't much help himself but the man at least provided comic relief and forced them to take a break when they needed it most, it helped to clear their heads for a bit before trudging back through countless book after book.

It wasn't so much as reading the books themselves that was difficult; they had gale forces reading glasses; that was the easiest part. It was hunting down, going on missions and finding these damn books, then writing down every little detail and sorting through what was relevant and striking what was irrelevant.

Maybe he could have simply asked Gajeel about it, but he definitely didn't want the stupid iron brain to know about what he was doing, he'd know what was up, and start something unnecessary. He was afraid it would end up pushing Lucy away before they could even become anything… _if_ they ever became anything.

He grunted, this was frustrating the shit out of him, how'd this girl get under his skin like this? Ever since she had walked through the guild doors she had dug herself right into his heart and refused to let go.

He felt a hand slap his shoulder; the three men were sitting at the bar. Laxus in the middle, Freed and Bickslow on either side of him, he looked over knowing whose hand it was and saw the lolling tongue and wide grin of the Seith mage.

"Loosen up bro, I think your heads about to explode!" He cackled, and Laxus rolled his eyes.

"This information has not been easy to come by" Freed scolded him "It would be much easier if we were able to ask-"

"No." Laxus cut him off, "shut up Freed, not another word or I'll strangle you." He told him calmly in a tone that suggested he would do it unblinkingly and without remorse. Laxus then took his mug in his hands and downed the rest of his beer.

Bickslow chuckled and Freed looked absolutely stricken, like a beaten dog; and it was probably how he felt too. Laxus was too tired to care; he got up and strode out of the room with both men on his heels. They got to the library, it was usually quiet in here, occasionally Levi would come in but she was distracted with her face buried in a book every time, he really thought she never noticed them once and thankfully Gajeel never followed her in here.

Freed pulled the small leather bound book from inside his coat, it was where they kept all their notes and so he kept it close and safe and made sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands, when they finally muddled through the tidbits of information and pieced everything together Freed was instructed to dispose of it.

 _When a dragon finds his/her mate he/she can form a strong bond that is unlike any other._

 _When both parties come to realize they have strong feelings for each other the mating process begins, however if other dragons are nearby, the smell of the dragons mate will become intoxicating and the other dragon(s) may try to claim (mark) the mate for themselves causing a tremendous amount of emotional distress for both the dragon and his/her potential mate._

 _Dragons sense their new mate, they are not bound by the mating process if they choose not to pursue, it seems that even though they have a semblance of free will; the Dragons experience a sense of "void" that urges in their subconscious. They will seem to unwittingly pursue their mate and even feel possessive at times, protective of their mate, and other strong feelings may occur._

"Okay so in other words, you want to bang cosplayer." Bickslow said smoothly after they were done with another book when Freed was done reading the notes out loud, he casually leaned against the desk and chuckled at his own sense of humor.

Freed took on a discolored tone "master Laxus would never conduct himself in such a manner!" He seethed; Bickslow held his hands up as if to ward him off and cackled, "bang! Bang!" His babies chimed.

Laxus rubbed his face with his hand, "will you two shut it" he snapped "We've gone through every damn book three times over" he snarled tossing it onto the desk Bickslow was leaned against "and that's all we manage to fucking find?" He plopped down in the chair and rested his head in his hands and spoke low trying to sort through it all out loud "Basically Blondie is my potential mate and I can choose to be with her, but I'll always have this nagging shit in the back of my mind telling me to claim her, what happened on Tenrou island was this Dragon mate thing getting in the way." He pointed to the second paragraph of their notes "if we discover we have "feelings"" he quoted "for each other, the ritual actually starts."

"Basically if you realize you love each other." Bickslow shrugged at him, he had a semiserious expression but his tone was still amused.

Laxus leaned back, if she realized she loved him he would know it, he felt pleased with that information, he didn't care about going his own way, he felt like he liked Lucy Love, she was feisty, strong, beautiful, a catch, he grinned an animalistic grin; his thoughts turned to other things she might be.

Bickslow caught on and his tongue lolled out again, Freed was still looking over the three small tidbits of info they managed to scrape up, they hadn't expected to find much, Dragons were a mystery and they were assuming Slayers were like their Dragons and hoping followed the same basic rules and traditions as them. They were also hoping Laxus only being a dragon slayer by enforcement, didn't mean something would go awry in this situation and no side effects would occur. He hadn't expected this _little_ of information though, none of them had.

"Then there's the issue with when the mating actually begins, if it happens in the vicinity of Natsu and Gajeel, it could pose major problems." Freed contemplated, while Laxus scowled; that wasn't gonna happen if he had any say in it.

He turned his head to face the door to the library as it opened and tensed, it was just Levi again, a book in hand and…he smelled her before he saw her… Lucy trailing after her friend chatting away; Levi almost stopped dead in her tracks when she saw three of the Raijinshuu in the library, "what are you guys doing here?" Lucy asked before the bluenette could, the celestial mage was walking up to them and smiling brightly.

"Just doing some research Miss Lucy" Freed informed her.

Lucy looked curious "what kind of research? Do you guys need help?" She asked them, Freed beamed at her kindness.

"No we actually just finished up" he told her, Lucy nodded she looked at all of them, they looked tired she noted "you guys look like you need a break" she told them, Levi had long since put back her book and grabbed what she needed and left, so it was just the four of them.

"Yeah it's been rough" Laxus told her, she saw him rub his face and she could tell they were all exhausted.

She mulled over something for a minute before she seemed to come to a conclusion, "how about you guys come by my house, I'll make you dinner. After doing a bunch of research I bet you haven't had much time for anything else, especially a hot meal huh?" She asked smiling, the three men immediately jumped on this offer and they made the plans to come by later on in the evening.

Lucy looked at all three men who were looking satisfied and relaxed. Laxus had tipped his chair back and his hands were folded behind his head, Bickslow was playing with his babies and Freed, well… she guessed Freed's version of "relax" was reading one of her many books that he had picked out.

Eventually Bickslow and Freed had left which left Laxus sitting on her couch lazily as if he owned the place, Lucy stood in front of him, hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? I'm not ready to go home yet." He smirked.

"So what were you researching?" She asked him curiously.

He frowned "nothing" he said "stuff for a mission we're on" he told her.

"Oh, you not allowed to tell me?" She asked.

"Not really." He told her looking away, she stared at him thoughtfully, he still looked pretty tired and tense, and he had a strange look on his face, he suddenly faced her catching her staring at him and she flinched, blushed and looked away.

"You like staring at me?" He teased, totally amused.

She side eyed him "No." she snapped "I was just seeing if you were okay, you still look pretty worn out" she pointed out, worry evident on her face.

"I'm fine" He told her, Sitting forward he looked at her intently.

"W-what?" She asked him a bit unnerved by his staring, he smiled "nothing, I just like staring at you" he teased.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Oookay" She lightly smacked his shoulder and he caught her hand and tugged her down on his lap.

"Watch it blondie." He muttered, his lips nuzzled her ear as he spoke, she sucked a breath, heat crashing through her body and she suddenly squirmed out of his lap and landed on her ass, "OW!" She shouted rubbing her backside and glaring at him.

"That wasn't my fault." He said laughing.

"Um, yes it was!" she screeched, "ugh!" She got up and stomped over to her bed and plopped down on it, glaring at him.

He chuckled "guess I better get going anyway" he said and with that he let himself out.

Lucy put her face in the mattress and let out a frustrated groan, he was trying to get a rise out of her and it didn't help she thought he was _kinda_ sexy, she _refused_ to give him too much credit.

She groaned again.

That Jerk

* * *

Master Makarov jumped on the railing of the second floor and looked over the guild hall at all his children "Laxus, Lucy, Erza, Gajeel and Bickslow, my office, Now!" He shouted and with that he jumped back down and headed toward said office and waited for them patiently to all pile in, before he closed the door.

"Someone from the magic council has given us a mission." He told them quietly, waiting for their reaction and he was not disappointed.

Everyone looked at him in complete and utter shock, "why? How?!" Erza shouted, one fist raised.

"Keep your voice down" he informed her calmly, Erza flushed and put both hands at her sides, everyone stared at Makarov, waiting for him to explain what the heck was going on.

"Someone from the magic council has asked for some very specific items for you to retrieve" he explained as he passed a file to Erza and she flipped through the pages while he kept going "A crown, and three jewels, all scattered across the earth in ruins, after years of research he has found one of the those ruins that supposedly has one of the items and a clue as to where the other ruins may be and has asked for my best mages to retrieve these things and hand them over to him ASAP."

By now the file had been passed around and Lucy looked intently at the pictures, drawings of a large crown with what looked like wings coming out of each side, three jewels were positioned in it. There were various notes and old pages that held what were passages of legends surrounding the piece and she read them over carefully.

Master handed Erza a map, "you will be the teams leader Erza and you Laxus" he turned to his grandson, "will be her second in command, should something befall Erza."

"You will leave tomorrow" Master Makarov told them, "I've already purchased your tickets for a train to your first destination and from there you will have to walk to your second destination on foot." He handed each of them a ticket, "be at the train post at six am sharp, you may go." He dismissed them and they all piled out of his office, Master shutting the door behind them.

Erza turned to her team, "the file suggest this mission could take weeks to finish, Make sure what you pack is useful, and realistic, I will provide you each with a list of whatever else you will need to include in that packing, go home and meet at the train station at five thirty am sharp, no lateness or you're not going, no excuses." She informed them, "now go" She turned away and headed toward the bar to speak to Mira, Laxus was behind her and joined in the conversation.

Lucy looked at Gajeel and Bickslow, "I wonder what's in store for us?" Gajeel asked thoughtfully, she didn't answer him because she was wondering the same thing herself, Loke appeared next to her along with Virgo surprising her, "you will not need to pack anything princess we can meet you at your house and whatever you wish to send to the Celestial spirit world we will hold for you and give to you, should you need it."

Lucy snapped her fingers "That's right!' she said excitedly, "I almost forgot!" and with that she raced down the stairs, grabbing both her spirits hands in tow and pulled them with her, she bounced up to Erza.

"We don't need to pack anything and carry any extra weight!" she told her and then explained the plan upon seeing her red headed friends questioning eyebrow raise. When she was done Erza looked thoughtful "I forgot you had very useful resources at your disposal Lucy, thank you, then I shall give the list to your friends." She told them bowing respectively in their direction, Loke and Laxus were sending dagger like glares at each other, and then Laxus threw an arm over Lucy's shoulder "she's smart as a whip isn't she?" He asked, grinning at Loke.

Loke looked riled, "come princess" he said softly grabbing Lucy's wrist and pulling her away, she looked embarrassed by what was going on and before Laxus could retaliate Virgo was in front of him, and although she didn't speak, her eyes said volumes before she turned and caught up with her two companions, they walked her out with Erza right behind them, ready to help with preparations, Laxus watching them go.

The next morning Erza and Lucy were up and headed out the door, they had spent half the night preparing themselves, and Erza ended up staying over, they made it to the train station at 5:15 and waited.

Laxus was one of the first to arrive of the three men, Bickslow and Gajeel weren't too far behind though. "Is everyone ready?" She asked all of them, when everyone was finally together, they all nodded and the sounds of the train whistle signaled them to board.

Laxus snapped his sound pod over his ears as soon as he sat down and closed his eyes, Gajeel had crossed his arms and looked out the window, Lucy had taken Laxus window seat to see the landscape, and she suddenly realized that Laxus got motion sickness along with Gajeel, so he wasn't being rude that time they went on their mission together. O _ops,_ she thought, she felt a little bad.

The train ride went smoothly, albeit Gajeel and Laxus motion sickness problems that Bickslow had taken full advantage of. When they arrived at their destination they got themselves hotel rooms for the night Erza saying that they would truly begin their journey the next morning and to meet in the lobby at four am.

They were heading to the mountains north of the town which were presumably haunted, no one travelled too close to them, which was why Makarov said they'd be on foot, and stables wouldn't even let them buy their horses.

Lucy and Erza shared a room and the three men camped in another, "you gonna be okay?" Laxus asked her when she went to her door, before she could turn the knob She looked back and saw Bickslow and Gajeel were looking at the two of them in puzzlement, embarrassed she told him yes and disappeared into her room, he had been referring to the nightmare he had witnessed, she had them rarely and she doubted she would tonight, so there had been no need to ask her that.

That assumption dissipated when a wave screams filled the air and Lucy was staring into the dark unseeing, not aware of the wailing sounds coming from her mouth, she almost sounded like a banshee. Erza leaped out of bed and reequipped, snapping the lights on, someone pounded on the door and finally the lock busted and broke and three men burst into the room with nothing but their boxers on, Erza flushed at the sight of their near nakedness.

Laxus had wasted no time though, once again leaping on the bed and clapping a hand over Lucy's mouth and wrapping his other arm around her shoulders in an attempt to calm her.

Her eyes were still wide open and staring until the screams faded and she became still, the other three mages looked on in disbelief as Lucy blinked coming back to herself, she suddenly put both hands over her face and cried softly; "I'm sorry" she sobbed.

"What are you sorry for blondie?" Laxus asked her gruffly.

Lucy just shook her head, "I don't want to talk about it," she said softly, she began to settle into his warmth until she noticed she in contact with skin, and hard muscle, she looked up noticing the same thing Erza had and she flushed a deep red that would rival Erza's hair color, the red haired mage looked equally as embarrassed still.

Lucy looked over at Laxus and came face to face with that same well-muscled chest she had cuddled against, she squeaked and pushed herself away from him and fell out of the bed in her attempt, crashing onto the floor in a tangle of sheets. Erza was immediately by her side and fought to help remove Lucy from the dastardly blankets hold on her.

"Why are you in your underwear?!" Lucy screeched.

Laxus looked at her disbelievingly, "well I'm sorry that I bust in here to see if you were okay!" He snapped Gajeel and Bickslow were trying hard not to laugh; their bodies were shaking uncontrollably, "I'm out bro!" Bickslow suddenly waved and left. Gajeel leaned against the door frame and watched the events unfold with amusement.

"Ugh! Will you guys get out?" Lucy yelled pointing at the door.

"Fine by me!" Laxus retorted and stomped out of the room, Gajeel silently followed still silently laughing.

Lucy stomped over to the door and slammed it but it opened slowly and she inspected it. _They broke the damn locks_! She thought, "seriously?!" She seethed, she gave up and stomped back to her bed and pulled the covers over her head. As she heard her friend shut the lights off and climb into her own bed, she thought over what had just happened. The nightmares had stopped a long time ago, that one time when she went on a mission with Laxus… She chopped that up to a fluke, a one-time thing, but if they were going to return she was worried.

Lucy closed her eyes and prayed that was the last time, the last fluke.

* * *

The events of last night had either been forgotten or no one chose to dredge them up Lucy decided because everyone went back to normal and they were all laughing and talking and getting to know each other as they trekked through the woodlands heading toward the mountains.

Loke had come from the Celestial Spirit world to accompany Lucy, she had him on one side and Gajeel on the other, and Laxus had lagged behind with Bickslow to watch the dumb spirit punk. Erza led the entire team, nose buried in a map, looking up every now and then to scan her surroundings, trying to spot specific landmarks.

"You've been popping out a lot lately Loke" Lucy pointed out, she smiled and he returned it.

"I just want to spend time with my princess," Loke always popped out and sometimes at the most inopportune time, but here lately it was a couple times a day instead of just once a day or every other day.

Gajeel wasn't really much of a talker but even he grunted, noting the spirits odd behavior although, as he looked back at Laxus who was staring Loke down, he supposed there might be a specific reason. Gajeel sighed, bunny girl didn't need this aggravation and neither did he, she was like his sister and he didn't feel like dealing with two headaches; Laxus was bad enough.

Loke grabbed Lucy's hand and placed his usual chaste kiss on the back of it, but this time he lingered a little longer and then suddenly something hit the back of his head, knocking him over. He got up and whipped around to see Bickslow's "babies" had all taken turns smashing into the back of his head.

Bickslow's babies and Bickslow were laughing hysterically; Laxus smirked and looked away while Lucy scolded him, "will you guys knock it off!" Erza shouted back at them.

Loke still looked like he was ready to fight; "force gate close!' Lucy shouted and watched as Loke disappeared with a look of utter betrayal directed at her that tugged on her heart strings, Lucy sighed; "you guys all give me a headache." She told all of the men in the group.

"Don't lump me in with them!" Gajeel shouted.

"Same here!" Laxus shouted as well.

Bickslow chuckled and Lucy rolled her eyes, she'd had enough and skipped up to Erza and began talking with her.

"You think your smooth, but I'm not stupid" Gajeel muttered knowing the lightning dragon slayer could hear him. "Whatever I don't know what you're talking about" he heard said lightning slayer mutter back, Bickslow was lost on the conversation, not having that incredible and handy sense of hearing, the rest of the trip was silent save for the occasional conversation Lucy and Erza had.

Finally they made it to the mouth of a cave after climbing the accursed mountain, "this is it?" Laxus asked disbelievingly, everyone crowded around slightly out of breath.

Erza nodded; "the map indicates the entrance to the ruins lies in here somewhere" she told them all.

"So we're supposed to find another entrance in this entrance." Gajeel said, it wasn't a question, Erza nodded at him then she led the way.

The cave was dark and they all had torches Laxus zapped for them, they traipsed this darkness scanning the cave, it looked ordinary, ridged rugged walls, stalagmites and stalactites, dripping water, the smell of darkness and musk. No one expected the large iron doors at the end of the tunnel, with its intricate symbols of heroes of old and mythical beasts and in the center two large golden handles glimmering in the firelight.

"What the hell?" Gajeel went up to these doors and traced the carvings, "well I didn't expect this" he said.

Lucy traced the carvings with her hands as well, she explored the grooves and crevices, everything was so detailed down to the last feather of a bird or hair of a beast or scale of a dragon, every claw, every sharp canine, and the men and women featured were also detailed exquisitely, beautiful, frightening faces of a race long ago.

"Stand back everyone." Erza commanded them; she opened the doors and they all gasped when they saw what lay behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Lucy slid across the stone floor and down a hole in the ground as a large basilisk struck the stone where her belly was just seconds ago, she breathed a sigh of relief and then sucked it in as she slid down the weird tunnel and dropped onto a floor below the one she was in.

She could hear it slithering around above her and then off and she knew it was looking for a way to reach her, so she wasted no time running for her life.

Another corpse appeared from behind a corner and tried to strike her with a blade, she kicked its knees out from under it and it toppled to the ground while she kept going, the corpses were the most annoying of all the stuff they had encountered in this place.

They had been here in the ruins for two weeks now. When they had arrived and opened those gorgeous iron doors they had stepped into what looked like a great hall, with pillars everywhere supporting the weight of the mountain and another door similar to the one they had opened on the other end.

They had spent a couple hours exploring, occasionally hearing something _off_ every now and then, they hadn't expected to encounter anything, especially not giant snakes, living corpses or other annoying monsters.

The place was well lit considering no one had been there for thousands of years, in various spots hung hanging lanterns with strange glowing blue fires emitting from them.

Erza had suggested the place was powered by some magical reserve and that whatever that reserve was must have been extraordinary to keep the place alive for a millennium, quickly they discovered how dangerous this place really was and had fought off numerous things to the point of exhaustion until they had been lucky enough to find a sort of "safe haven."

They also came to realize their biggest asset in finding the crown was Lucy and Bickslow; as Lucy was small enough to squeeze in and out of small spaces and Bickslow's babies could essentially float through those same small spaces themselves. That left only one option to split up into two teams and someone who stayed behind to keep an eye on their sanctuary, Lucy also had to leave her hammer behind, which made her feel naked.

Erza, Laxus, and Gajeel took turns rotating between Lucy and Bickslow as they explored the ruins, hoping they could finally find the crown and get the hell out of there, and so far they had no luck.

Lucy rounded another corner and came to a large stone bridge. It was a big cavern, another thing they hadn't expected was a damn near world underneath a world in here, a forest in some of the larger caverns like this one, this particular room had a giant water fall coming out of a dark hole in the ceiling with a secret passage behind it. There were other ruin passageways on the level below, tunnels leading to other floors that went deeper and deeper into the earth, across was another tunnel and a stairway to another one, she felt like they were never going to be able to manage this.

She pulled out the parchment of the map they had so far drawn up, her and Laxus had gotten separated, and she was sure she didn't need it, they had been here long enough to somewhat know their way around, however it was good to keep it on them and map out any new passages, tunnels or hallways, when she got back to their sanctuary, she would have a new one to draw out, a room with a giant sewer looking grate in the center of the floor.

Someone shouted at her from the level below and she looked down... then behind her shoulder when she heard the basilisk catching up, she looked back down again, it was Laxus.

Lucy jumped and he caught her in the air " _are you crazy_?!" He asked her when he set her down.

Lucy grinned "I knew you'd catch me." She told him, he looked taken aback and little did she know he was surprised and pleased that she trusted him, his thoughts were broken and the pair looked up to see the giant snake was hissing and trying to find a way to reach them.

They quickly ran hoping to lose it before it found a way down, they disappeared behind the waterfall into a tunnel that was hidden behind it, when they ran down the passage they came to a stop.

It was another large cavern, a behemoth of one with a high ceiling and an abyss below, it almost looked like it could be a large hollowed out sphere if they knew whether or not the thing had a bottom, they couldn't peer past the darkness.

In the center of this cavern was one of the largest hanging lanterns they had witnessed so far in this whole accursed place, and a soft blue light lit them and all the walls surrounding them. Included in that soft light was the cliff they were standing on and another right across from them, it seemed like there had been a bridge once a long time ago, but it looked like something smashed it from the middle and crumbled the structure leaving a gap.

Laxus grabbed Lucy around the waist and lightning teleported across, aside from him there was only one other way to cross and that was the rope tied to one of Sagitta's many arrows above both passages on either side of the cavern.

Lucy wound her arms from Laxus waist and started to make her way into the other passage before Laxus stopped her by grabbing her wrist and whipping her around to face him.

'Hey!" Lucy began to protest but he cut her off.

"First of all, don't get separated from me again," he said through gritted teeth "secondly I want to check for any injuries." He started to examine her but she ripped away from him.

"First of all, I'm not a child!" she snapped "second of all, I'm fine." She turned around and walked away from him, he passed a hand over his face in exasperation, but he followed her anyway.

"I'm a grown woman Laxus" Lucy lectured, when he caught up to her "treat me with respect."

"That doesn't mean you can take off like that, we should have worked as a team!" He growled.

"It wasn't my fault!" She shouted "I fell down that hole in the ground remember?"

"And you couldn't wait for me?" He yelled back.

"A large monster was chasing me!" She screeched.

He crossed his arms and looked away from her grunting, Lucy sighed "I'm sorry we got separated, there was nothing I could do" she spread her hands in apology. Laxus relaxed his shoulders, he knew it wasn't her fault, he had been scared, and his anger was the result of that fear.

"I'm sorry too." He said with sincerity looking down at her "I know it wasn't your fault, I was just… worried." She could barely hear that last part but she did and she jumped on it.

" _Awww_ , you were worried about me?" She giggled jabbing him with her elbow.

"Knock it off, blondie" he waved her off, smirking.

"Will do sparky" she called back, she had skipped ahead before he could make a comeback, and was running when she saw the orange glow of the fire that was lit.

This room was a godsend, high, high above them was a hole leading out to Earhtlands wonderful atmosphere and every now and then a cold breeze that smelled of snowy mountains would waft in making them all wistful of home after being stuck in here for what seemed like eternity.

They were grateful too; to that small fire and the small bit of light that came through, there may have been another one of those weird hanging lights but they were sick of seeing that dim blue, they felt like they needed color and life in this dreary place.

Lucy skidded to halt in front of the fire and plopped herself next to Gajeel, him and Bickslow had been back for a while and they were all waiting on Laxus and Lucy, Laxus himself followed in after her at his own pace and sat across from the blonde mage, the fire in-between them.

Virgo popped up behind Lucy and randomly began braiding her hair, she had been growing it out since before she joined fairy Tail, and to her it was a symbol of freedom and wild abandon.

"You let your spirits pop out whenever?" Laxus asked her, it wasn't the first time he'd seen it, just the first time he commented on it, the only one that annoyed him was the playboy.

Speak of the devil…

"Lucy treats us with respect, we are not objects to her, we are people and have feelings. She loves her spirits and would do anything for us, and hence we return her kindness and graciousness and love of our own, to our dear princess." Loke had popped out and was now kneeling down next to Lucy who smiled at him without looking at him, Virgo still had her princess's hair entwined in her fingers and Lucy didn't want to mess it up for her.

Virgo nodded absently "Hime is very special to us; we will do anything we can for her."

Lucy just chuckled, she wasn't going to say anything, her spirits had done the talking for her, and they knew how to fight their own battles.

"Tch" Laxus looked away; everyone was quiet after that exchange, it had been kind of awkward. Erza was pouring over some books that the magic council member who had hired them for this mission had sent along, trying to find some sort of clue as to the whereabouts of the crown, Bickslow was silently chatting with his babies as they float around him, and Gajeel and Laxus were staring off into the fire, with Laxus sitting cross legged and both fists tucked under his chin and Gajeel just one.

Lucy had long since lay down on her own cot and was sleeping peacefully when a loud growl/shout jolted her awake, along with everyone else who was enjoying the peace and quiet. Erza was sick of looking through these books, she violently threw one on the ground and it bounced and nearly smacked Lucy in the head.

"I can't figure this out!" Erza stormed away, Lucy picked the book up gingerly, and feeling sorry for her friend, she decided to give it a go herself.

Everyone else went back to their silence.

* * *

It was early the next morning after Erza had unceremoniously tossed the book off to the side the night before, Laxus and Lucy were the only ones who were awake, She had grabbed the rest of the books, and wished she could just pour through it was gale force reading glasses, but on these certain texts they wouldn't work for some reason.

Laxus came over and sat next to her, "how's it coming along?" he asked her.

Lucy shook her head "I haven't really found anything" she said, her lips formed a white line before she spoke again "I don't understand this, I can't really even tell if there's some sort of clue, or maybe a riddle, there's no way somebody buried this stuff without leaving something behind to find them again, unless they didn't want them to be found." She explained.

Laxus had picked up one of the books and was holding it gingerly up by one of the covers, the pages flapped and the firelight shone through it, Lucy was about scold him and snatch the book away when something caught her eye. "Let me see that!" She shouted excitedly.

"No way!" She cried out triumphantly, amusement colored her voice as she thumbed the pages like a flipbook, the firelight glowing from behind the thin paper. Her and Laxus put their heads together and watched the words that were blossoming before their eyes; everyone was beginning to stir after Lucy's shout of revelation.

"What is it?" Erza asked, she was standing facing them from across the fire.

"Why are your heads so close?" Gajeel grumbled sleepily.

Laxus smirked but Lucy ignored the comment, too excited by her discovery. "Laxus is genius!" She cried happily standing up, she bounced over to Erza to show her what the two mages had discovered.

Erza nodded in approval in Laxus direction, "good work" she told him.

Laxus grimaced "it was an accident; Blondie's the one who noticed and figured it out." He told her, Lucy blushed but waved him off.

"We have found a way to find the jewel, not the crown" she explained to Bickslow and Gajeel who were still completely clueless to what was going on, "we've been searching for the wrong item, number one." Lucy held up a finger, then another one as she continued "Number two, this tells us exactly where one of the jewels that goes to this crown is, it's called the jewel of night."

"It doesn't give us a map; instead it gives us clues on where to find it."

 _"Past the golden gates,_

 _Through the darkness with heart of bold_

 _Under the falling stars_

 _Where ruby red tint's the light_

 _To shine upon the men of old"_

"What does that mean?" Erza asked the blonde.

Lucy sat down cross legged, she pondered over the riddle, "well the first parts easy" she began "we have to find golden doors or metaphorical ones, and I think I know where they are" She said.

"What?! Where?!" Everyone asked.

"Laxus and I discovered them yesterday." She told them simply.

Everyone looked toward Laxus who just looked confused, "we saw some grate in the ground, looked like it led to some underground sewer" he said "yeah they were… gold-ish, and huge but I wouldn't call them doors."

"Before we got interrupted yesterday I saw some sort of mechanism in the far wall from the doorway, and I was trying to figure it out before that monster came out of nowhere." Lucy explained, "I think they open."

"Well then we must get going!" Erza commanded.

"Are we all going? Or is one of us staying at camp as usual?" Gajeel asked.

Lucy shook her head "I got a feeling about this, so I don't think we'll be coming back here."

Erza was the first to head to the exit in their little cavern, "we must waste no time!" She called to them without looking back.

"Beats being in this dump" Gajeel muttered.

Bickslow nodded in agreement "Sooner we find this thing the sooner we can get out of this hell hole!" He chuckled, " _hell hole! Hell hole!"_ His babies chanted.

Lucy led the way to the gates, or grates if you wanted to call them that, there was no sign of the basilisk that chased them yesterday, in fact it was unusually quiet and it kept them all on edge.

The blonde celestial mage fiddled with the mechanism she had discovered yesterday, it was a lever, it should have been simple but it wouldn't budge no matter how hard she pulled, she looked around the room.

There were three hanging lanterns above the gate, but other than that the room was bare save for the giant grate and the lever.

She hunkered down examining the grate itself, it was dark down there but she could hear water rushing below, maybe Laxus was right… Maybe she was wrong; she sighed and looked up at one of the lanterns. That dim little blue light irritated her, and then she noticed it was a filter.

Large blue glass orbs were settled precariously on rings just underneath what looked like white flames, they were different from the blue flames in all the other lanterns they had seen.

Lucy stood up daring to believe, it wasn't a hunch, just a hope so she wouldn't be wrong and have drug them out for nothing.

"Laxus" she muttered, she felt him come closer and stare at whatever it was she was looking at.

"Yeah?" He asked.

She pointed, "Can you zap that little blue sphere?" She asked him.

He side eyed her but did as she requested, when the first orb broke the hanging lantern pulled up and the lever twitched in the wall, everyone turned to it, and Lucy could have jumped up and down for joy, she was right, they _were_ weights.

Laxus stood underneath the second one, and zapped that orb, Bickslow used one of his babies to knock the third one down and into Lucy's outstretched hands, her, Laxus and Bickslow were the only three standing above the grate/gate when the lever reached the bottom and the metal doors swung downward and they were rushed into the darkness below with only their wails being heard.

" _Lucy_!" Erza, and Gajeel simultaneously screamed.

They waited but they were met with silence, and they were about to jump down and find out if they were alright when someone chuckled from the darkness "I see I'm not important." They heard Bickslow's voice.

"Is Lucy okay?" Erza asked him.

"yeah cosplayer's alright." He told her.

Below Lucy responded, Laxus had once again caught her and was setting her down as she answered her friend, "I'm fine Erza, what's with the nickname?" she asked Bickslow curiously, he grinned, "you and your friends dress in costumes."

"I don't dress in costumes," she huffed "and I suppose my spirits sort of do." She conceded.

The other two mages followed the fallen ones and as soon as they jumped into the dark abyss they were met with a bright light, Erza looked up but she saw only blackness above, "this place keeps getting stranger by the minute." She commented, and everyone nodded in agreement.

They scanned their surroundings, they were on a small pathway made of stone and a river gushed next to them in what looked like yet another underground cavern, Lucy inwardly groaned, she was so sick of caverns.

They followed the pathway and it seemed like hours before they reached what looked like crystal dust falling from above and down onto the ground before disappearing, it blocked their path.

Gajeel walked up to it and held his hand out catching the dust, Lucy followed suit, she couldn't tell what it was, she looked at Gajeel he was sniffing the stuff in his hands "smells like mist." He muttered.

"I've never seen mist look like that." Laxus commented.

Lucy stepped into the "falling stars" and disappeared. "Lucy we don't know what it is!" Erza hissed, "Its fine" they heard her call from the other side, so they all stepped through.

Everyone blinked at the sudden blinding light, when their eyes recovered they looked around; it seemed like they were nestled in the valley of twin peaks, the chilling bite of the cold air rustled their hair and made everyone's faces immediately turn ruddy.

They saw another door across the way, larger than the ones they had encountered before, but similar to the first, there were two statues depicting kings standing on either side and in their outstretched arms on the sides closest to the doors, in open palms sat great crystal balls, sunlight shone directly on them and somehow refracted through them to point on a hollowed circle on the entrance.

They started to walk forward when the heavy beat of wings startled them and they all jumped backward when a large golden wyvern landed on the snowy surface in front of them, it looked at them silently for a moment, teeth bared before it let out a mighty roar that shook the ground and had the team covering their ears.

"Let's go!" Erza took charge pointing to the creature, it roared again as they attacked.

"Bickslow distract it!" She shouted.

"Laxus knock it back with your lightning roar and Lucy and Gajeel hit it with everything you got!' She shouted "I'll take care of the rest" she said reequipping into her heavens wheel armor.

"Go Babies!" Bickslow yelled, arms outstretched cackling as his "babies" danced circles around the beast taunting it.

When it was fully distracted Laxus let out his signature "lightning dragon's roar!" Against it, the creature stumbled back in surprise as Lucy and Gajeel were up; smashing into it simultaneously, Gajeel with his iron fist and Lucy with her hammer, and lastly Erza leaped over them all and before the creature's head connected to the ground she pierced her swords straight through its skull, splattering blood everywhere.

The creature lay limp in the earth, it had absolutely no chance and they all stood there recovering when suddenly the balls glowed bright red and they shielded their eyes from it before lowering them to see blood had splattered on the crystals glowing in the palms of the kings and the doors silently opened, a rush of air sucking into the blackness.

"I guess that explains the last two lines of the clue." Lucy said.

"Glad we didn't have to figure it out!" Erza said triumphantly.

"Tch that seemed too easy," Gajeel commented, but they had no time to ponder on it, cautiously but hurriedly they entered the new part of the ruins.

It was a large room; and underneath a beam of light, floating above a small pillar in the very center was the dark jewel, they crept closer for a better look. It was dark as night, with small specks that glimmered and seemed to be floating within it like they were tiny stars, it was also large, easily fitting into the palm of your hand, they had expected it to be smaller like it was depicted in the drawings so they were shocked to say the least.

"This isn't right!" Erza cried, "This can't be the jewel we're after!"

Lucy looked at her red haired companion but she had a feeling it was right, this was what they were looking for.

She tentatively reached out to take it but a voice hissing in the darkness stopped her in her tracks, it froze them all into place.

"I would not touch what was not yourssssss, no I would not." That same voice was accompanied by a deathly growl and a large beast stepped into the light, one giant dark paw at a time until it was standing fully in all its glory for them to gawk at it.

It was a large black lion, and on all fours it was taller than any of them. Raking them with a reddish gaze, it glared at each of the mages, it had coarse dark fur covering it's well-muscled body, it's paws hardly looked like the paws of a lion but more like the claws of a bird, though they were covered in hair themselves and the talons it had, didn't click against the ground but more like bit into it; boring holes in the surface. Its mane was wild and tangled, and almost matted, it had large bat-like wings protruding from its shoulders and the appendages that connected the wings to its back were sinewy and looked almost twisted.

A long white streak slithered around the lions body and they met a beautiful almost crystalline looking snake with glittering green eyes that shone with malice, it flicked a clear tongue out at them and the flash of blue veins were seen.

"Let me introduccce usssss" it hissed "we are the Manticore" it bowed its head in mock fashion and leveled them with a leer; the lion thundered a growl, "Now we will finisssh you." It hissed again and struck out at Lucy who was closest.

Something thundered and she felt a weird tingling sensation; then suddenly she was far away from the creature and standing closer to the door, she looked up to see Laxus grim expression as the creature turned its attention away from her, roaring at the three mages that were left behind.

The snake struck out again at Gajeel who blocked it with his steely arm, he was surprised when it cracked through and nicked him, Gajeel cried out in pain and saw red welts busting his skin instantly, "his fangs are poisonous!" He shouted a warning at the others

The snake looked bemused "you ssshould be dead by now" it hissed menacingly "but I sssuposse your armor hasss protected you." It informed him.

"Good to know" Gajeel muttered his armor coating his entire body again, save for the broken skin and welted areas. Erza reequipped into adamantine armor that would fully cover her, Bickslow, Laxus and Lucy would have no advantage so Erza and Gajeel took on the snake while they distracted the lion.

"How do we fight this thing, if we've never even heard of one before?" Laxus shouted.

"I've heard of it before!" Lucy yelled above the roar, she swung her hammer knocking the lion back some, it stumbled and Erza and Gajeel took advantage of the snake's surprise, and began attacking, but they missed and it struck out at them again nearly catching Erza's uncovered cheek.

Erza skid back and growled, Gajeel could feel his arm burning and knew the poison was spreading, he hoped they'd finish this soon or he was done for.

The lion knocked back the other three mages and then roared; all opponents seemed to be at a standoff, staring at each other intently, "we have to cut the belly of the beast and chop the head of the snake at the same time." Lucy muttered to Laxus, his face held a grim expression.

Lucy wasted no time she bounded upward and leaped off the lion's head bravely, she flipped and landing in a crouch, the snake struck and nearly caught her but she leaped out of the way.

"Erza, hand me a sword!" Lucy shouted hands outstretched having strapped her hammer to her back already, Erza complied; and handed her the hilt of one of her swords.

"What do we do Lucy?" Erza asked her friend, she dared not take her eyes off the snake, even though Gajeel was keeping it busy but she sidled up to Lucy.

"I'll slide underneath, and you take off that thing's head" Lucy told her, Erza nodded.

"Get ready" Lucy muttered and then they charged. Lucy slid under the animal slicing its belly, it gave out a painful roar while Erza chopped the head of the snake, the beast suddenly dropped down and Lucy's small form disappeared underneath.

"Lucy!" Laxus shouted seeing what had happened, they all raced over and together they heaved the beast off of her, she was covered in blood.

"Holy _crap_! This is gross!' Lucy shouted, her arms held out on either side of her as she looked down her body in disgust, " _ugh-mmmp_!" She shut her mouth quick as it oozed down her face and she raced outside while everyone laughed in both amusement and relief.

Erza went up to the pillar trying to pry the jewel from midair but it wouldn't budge, Gajeel stumbled forward his vision going black while Erza and the other two boys tried in vain to figure out how to get the stone, "where's Lucy maybe she can figure it out?" Laxus asked looking around; she hadn't been back in a while.

Suddenly the girl appeared in the doorway, wringing water out of her hair, other than that being wet, she was completely dry and in clean clothes.

"Did you take a bath or something?" Laxus gawked at her.

"Virgo splashed some water on me, I dried off with a towel and she gave me dry clothes." Lucy explained.

"You were naked?!" Bickslow asked, his tongue sticking out with a wide perverted grin on his face, Lucy rolled her eyes, and Laxus punched his friend upside the head with a angry look on his face "there is no way, you are ever seeing me naked Bix!" Lucy scolded him, "what's going on?" She asked, ignoring the death glares Laxus was now giving the Seith mage, who had a worried look on his face and was backing away slowly.

"We can't get the stone to budge." Erza told her; hand cupping her own chin as she tried to figure it out, Lucy came up and waved her open palm underneath without thinking, she was just messing around, but it actually dropped into her hand, "oh, okay" she said giggling at their reaction.

"Seriously?!" They all cried.

She looked over at Gajeel when she heard someone's shuttered breaths, and nearly dropped the stone "Gajeel!" She cried, they all raced over to him and she tried to scoop him up as best as she could, the welts on his arm was spreading, "we have to get him back!" She cried.

Laxus and Bickslow went over and together lifted him up; they went outside with Virgo waiting, "I have already informed the Christina airship of your whereabouts." She said politely, bowing. Before they had even left Magnolia Erza and the master had chartered Blue Pegasus help "punishment princess?" she asked Lucy.

Lucy ignored the Maid as she focused her attention on the sky; the boys were still holding the Iron dragon slayer, waiting impatiently on their ride. Finally after what seemed like forever the Christina showed up, though it looked in bad shape.

"What happened to you guys?" Laxus asked boarding.

"We were on a mission we had just gotten done with yesterday, and we haven't fully repaired the Christina" Hibiki replied, he looked over at Gajeel "he looks bad" he commented.

"We need to get to Fairy Tail fast!" We need Porlyusica!" Erza shouted, Laxus and Bickslow dragged Gajeel intoa corner of the ship and laid him down, he was breathing heavily, Lucy was the last one in.

"Fairy Tail has a new healer" he informed them "who might be more useful than Porlyusica." He said and with that he flew the sailing ship on a straight course to Fairy Tail.

Everyone looked up as the guild doors flew open and the team raced to the infirmary, Hibiki trailing behind, he scanned the crowd until he finally saw the little bluenette. "Wendy!" He called to her; the girl looked over at the group, than at him.

"Do you need something Hibiki-sama?" She asked him bowing.

"They have an injured comrade and need your assistance." He told her pointing to the infirmary, Levy had disappeared up there as well, and Wendy nodded and raced after them.

There was nothing more he could do, with a nod at all the members of the guild and one final one to Master Makarov, he walked out and made for his own guild.

* * *

He'll live." Wendy told them, the welts had disappeared when she healed him, and Gajeel was resting, Lucy felt thankful to the little girl and hugged her tight, "Wendy is it?" She asked her.

The little girl smiled shyly, "yes" she said.

"Thank you" Lucy nodded, she felt okay now that Gajeel was safe, and she wanted to leave Levy alone with him, she had to have been just as much, if not more worried than her.

"C'mon I'll get you some ice cream or something" she told her and hand in hand she led the little girl out of the room, a white cat haughtily trailing after them.

In Masters Office Makarov placed the jewel on a strange metal device, the thing glowed and the jewel disappeared.

"Do we know who on the magic council wants this thing?" Laxus asked.

Master Makarov shook his head "their secretaries have been in contact with me and have not revealed the one who has contracted us." He told his grandson.

Erza looked worried and Master spread his hands apologetically "there's nothing we can do." He told them, they nodded but they still didn't like it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Lucy rubbed her eyes before going back to the old yellowed pages, black texts and drawings, she had more books then Levy usually did spread out on one of the guild hall tables and everyone steered clear of that specific one because they were literally _everywhere_.

A piece of hair fell past her ears and tickled her face, she shoved her locks back seriously annoyed, "ugh! I _hate_ my hair today!" She shouted to herself seething, she should have put it up, but _noooo_ , she decided not to for some idiotic reason.

She didn't notice the dark shadow that suddenly loomed in front of her or that same someone who cast it sat down in the seat across from her, but she did notice the ice cold strawberry milkshake that was clunked down in front of her, condensation almost got on one of the pages she was practically pressing her nose into, so she moved it out of the way and finally looked up for this first time in what seemed like hours.

"You need to take a break Blondie." Laxus told her he leaned one elbow on the table resting his chin on a closed fist and stared at her.

Lucy yawned and stared pointedly at the shake then at him with a questioning look, he chuckled "it's for you, but only if you take a break." He said.

Lucy shoved the rest of the books and pages away from her and started drinking the shake, "thanks" she told him, after coming up for air. She stretched, yawned, rubbed her eyes again and finally stretched her neck muscles, tilting her head side to side, all in a weak attempt to wake herself up.

"So what are you doing?" He asked, looking at one of the books she had been pouring over, it had various monsters and detailed descriptions on them, books of old legends and what not. "Why aren't you using gale force reading glasses?"

Lucy rubbed her forehead, "once again they don't work on these texts, I'm trying to figure out the link between the two, but I can't, and as far as what I'm researching, well, remember when I said I knew how to defeat the Manticore?" She asked him, he nodded and waved for her to continue "it's because my mom had these books," she said lifting one up and waving it around before setting it back down "I thought it was something somebody had written for a fantasy novel, but after seeing the monster a week ago I realized their an encyclopedia of monsters."

Laxus sat back completely interested in hearing more, Lucy opened one of the books and pointed to a particular section, he saw that it had the picture of the Manticore they had fought and two others.

"For example there are only three Manticore on earth, and every time one of them is killed it gets.. I guess, reborn" she explained "The black lion, the red lion and the white lion. They all also have different weaknesses, like the black one, we had to slice its stomach and chop the head of the snake" She moved her finger over to the red one "this one you have to simply decapitate the head of the lion, apparently the black ones snake would have been able to heal the lion no matter what we did and slicing it' stomach was the fastest way to kill it, but first we had to cut the power from the source, it never needed to be at the same time, but it's been a long time since I read these."

She moved her finger to the white one next, "this one's more difficult, since both heads heal the other you have to decapitate both heads at the same time."

"Yikes." Laxus said he hoped they wouldn't tangle with any more of these things "So how many creatures are there that we don't know about?" He asked.

"Hmm" Lucy hummed, she started ticking off monsters on her fingers "Hydra's, Harpies, Gryphons, Unicorns, Basilisk have recently been discovered," she flipped another book open to show him the creature, "but there are tons that haven't been discovered, at least not in the books we _know_ of, I tried looking around to see if these particular books were sold anywhere else, and no one's ever heard of them. I even asked crux to help find any more and he says he's still searching, which is really unusual for him, I feel really overwhelmed by all this" she declared resting her head in her hands.

"Alright, alright" He put his hand on top of hers and gently moved it out of the way before shutting the book "look you've been at this for a couple days and your exhausting yourself, have you even gotten any sleep, fresh air?"

Lucy blushed "not really, I've just been so excited by this I haven't really focused on anything else" she admitted, her stomach growled suddenly as if to lecture her.

"You haven't even eaten?!" He exclaimed.

"Yes!" She snapped "a little!" she corrected herself, she started fiddling with another book but he removed it and started piling them up, before she could even object he had swiftly scooped them all up and was walking toward Mira, she couldn't hear what was being said but Mira looked curiously at Lucy who huffed and looked away, and as she watched from the corner of her eye she saw Laxus handing the takeover mage all of them to put behind the bar.

"I should really be studying those!" She whined "We need to be prepared for the next mission."

"Yeah and what good are you going to be, if your so exhausted and weak you can't even walk?" He shot back.

"I can walk just fine!" She stood up to show him.

"Yeah _now_ you can, c'mon," He grabbed her hand making her flush and started half dragging half leading her out of the guild, "I'm taking you to lunch and you are going to take a break, then all of us are going to sit down and research these things together, you don't have to do it alone." He said.

Lucy sighed, he was right of course, and it would be nice to get some help, she skipped to match his steps "Fine" she said with halfhearted smile, "thanks Laxus."

He grunted but otherwise didn't say anything she giggled, "What?" He asked.

"Nothing, sometimes you're cute." She teased, winking at him.

He flushed a deep scarlet "I am not cute!" He growled at her.

Lucy laughed "ooohkay, your _manly_ cute" she corrected, emphasizing the manly with her fingers in quotation marks.

Laxus growled again and went to grab her so he could show her how manly he was but she danced out of the way laughing, he tried to grab her again determined, but she eluded him once more before taking off down the street. Laxus grinned an animalistic grin and gave chase.

Lucy rounded the corner and disappeared down an alley, she hopped from one wall to the next till she was on top of the roofs, she heard a crack of lightning and Laxus was in front of her. Lucy yelped and changed course, jumping from one roof to another "don't cheat!" She called back.

She disappeared below in between two buildings landing on an alley below, she could hear the lightning dragon slayers footsteps on the roof tops so she rounded a corner and took off, seeing a crowd ahead she dove into it, disappearing among them.

Everyone was out and about on this beautiful sunny day; and they were all crowded in the market place "would you like to try our perfume?" A lady asked her, she was about to decline but thought it over and grinning she allowed the lady to spray her. The next stall over she grabbed a cute sun hat and paid the woman and left, weaving through the crowds still.

Laxus followed the blonde's scent into the market place and chuckled, did she really think he couldn't find her in the crowd? He followed the scent but it was immediately gone as soon as it was there, he turned around confused, other scents were starting to blend together and he frowned, he looked everywhere for her, trying to spot that signature gold hair of hers.

Lucy casually shopped, she had grabbed a pair of sunglasses and was staying far enough away from Laxus but close enough to follow him and she almost bust out laughing at her own cleverness, _I am such a smart ass_ , she sing songed to herself as she stalked him.

Laxus figured Lucy had masked her scent and was probably hiding under apparel now, so he carefully looked around, he spotted a blonde woman shopping with a hat on and grinned, he went up but when she turned around he realized it wasn't Lucy.

Suddenly she leapt in front of him, arms raised to look like claws and teeth bared in a grin "gotcha!" She hissed, and laughed but then pouted when he seemed un-phased.

"Really?" she whined.

He laughed "you can't scare me that easy" he told her his arms crossed as he stared at her with a brow raised.

Lucy crossed her own arms and leveled him with another pouty glare, "your no fun." She muttered, chastising him.

Laxus grinned and scooped her up much to her opposing squeals; "yeah, yeah" he chided "c'mon blondie I'm hungry" he still had her over his shoulder and Lucy practically wailed "put me down Laxus, right now!" She demanded, pointing her finger at the ground as if he could see it, she felt somebody slap her ass and got red in the face "Laxus Dreyer if you do that one more time I am going to _beat_ you!" She shouted at him earning curious glances in their direction.

His booming laughter rang in her ears, and made her heart stutter but another slap had her furiously trying to wiggle out of his grip, suddenly he tossed her up and caught her around the waist, bringing her eye level "watch it blondie you don't want to keep wiggling the pretty ass in my face, you might give me the wrong idea." He said smirking.

Lucy stuck her tongue out at him "Ugh! You're insufferable!" She cried, swatting him with her hand, he let out another booming laugh and set her down.

"We're here." He said.

Lucy spun around and saw they were at a little restaurant, vines hung over the building and it was made of misshapen cobblestones. It looked so cute; so quaint she never would have expected him to pick out a place like this.

They sat down and began to order their meal, she was starting to really enjoy his company, he was fun to be around, easy to talk to, and she did admit she was liking the kind of attention he gave her, she had never experienced it and it made her feel a certain way she had never felt before, he made her blush. She reminded herself though that he probably did it a lot so not to look too deeply into it, _don't ever be naïve_ , she reminded herself, _not again_.

They spent awhile at the restaurant talking even after their food had long since been eaten, eventually they went back to the market place and Laxus followed Lucy around while she shopped excitedly showing him this and that, and he hummed in approval whenever she picked something she liked.

By the time the sun was setting they found themselves at the park, she bought a blanket because she had wanted to go there and she didn't want to sit on any of the benches or on the grass, and she sort of made him sit and watch the sunset with her, despite his complaining he obliged.

Lucy felt herself reaching the peak of her exhaustion, the last couple of days of nonstop studying was finally taking its toll on her and she could feel her eyes drift closed even though she fought to keep them open, _screw_ _it_ , she thought, _I'm too tired to care_. With that she finally drifted off into much needed sleep.

Laxus looked over when he heard her soft breathing, and saw Lucy had passed out, he smiled "I knew you were tired" he half said to himself, half to her.

He got up and wrapped the blanket around her, and with her bags hanging from one arm, carrying her bridal style, he made his way to her house.

He realized he didn't know where her key was and he didn't want to break in so he had to wake her for a minute to get it from her before unlocking the door and carrying her inside. Laxus juggled Lucy while pulling the blanket from around her and tossing it over onto the couch in a pile, he pulled the covers back and lay her down, stopping long enough to kiss her forehead before pulling the covers up, he left the key on her table and locked the door behind him as he left.

.

..

* * *

..

.

The next day they all sat at a table pouring over the books Lucy had brought, "these are amazing Lulu." Levy was there to help them; Freed too as he was more than happy to help out, both of them looked like they could have drooled at the sight of the books they had never heard of before.

The only ones who really weren't were Bickslow, Gajeel and Laxus.

Laxus tipped his chair back, and grunted this was boring. Gajeel seemed to be thinking on the same lines when he saw his face was smushed into his hand and he was absent mindedly turning the pages, staring at nothing. Bickslow just did whatever, he didn't even pretend he was working; no one really seemed to notice anyway so he decided to close his eyes for a minute.

"Hey Laxus your falling asleep over there." He heard a female voice call to him in amusement, and he jerked awake and looked over to see Lucy's smug grin as she continued to study.

Finally she put the book away, "I don't know how much more information I can stuff in my head" she declared.

Gajeel gave up his pretending to be studying and glanced at Levy, "you find anything good shrimp?" He asked her, she glared at him for a minute before answering "Nothing you guys already haven't found yourselves." She replied.

Freed still looked as excited as a puppy with a new bone, "these are the most fascinating books I have ever come across, how did your mother obtain these Miss Lucy?" He asked the blonde.

"I really don't know, I just know that along with my hammer and a few celestial keys she passed those down to me too." She told him.

"That's even more fascinating" Freed was practically gushing "it is a mystery!" He declared. Laxus rolled his eyes; Freed could be a bit too much sometimes.

Suddenly smoke billowed around Lucy and Laxus almost jumped out of his seat to attack whatever it was when he noticed it was only one of Lucy's spirits, he sat down a bit embarrassed by everyone's curious glances, save for his two teammates and Gajeel who was side eyeing him.

"Yes Grandpa Crux?" Lucy asked her spirit kindly.

"I have finally found one of the books that go with your other sets." He informed her.

Lucy beamed "Really? Thank you!" She pumped her fist in the air and then threw her arms around the cross shaped spirit hugging him.

"It is in Oshibana town" He told her when she finally let go, he explained as many details as he could before suddenly he was asleep. It wasn't his usual slumber either, he seemed to be really exhausted, she closed his gate hoping he could get some rest and turned to her teammates, "who wants to go with me?" She asked everyone at the table.

Freed and Levy shot their hands into the air, Lucy laughed.

The men grumbled Lucy giggled, "I get it," she told them "that's okay I can do a mission with Levy and Freed, I'm sure everyone else here is sick of books, and these two would love to see the next one, and probably dive into a bunch of libraries." Lucy hooked a thumb at the two beaming mages.

Erza nodded, "it is settled then."

"What if they run into trouble?" Gajeel asked suddenly, Laxus was wondering the same thing, maybe he should go with them, but three waved them off.

"We'll be fine Gajeel" Lucy told him, she turned to the two mages, "we'll pack up tonight and meet at the train station at six am." She told them, the both stood up and simultaneously saluted her, "yes sir, Lucy sir!" They shouted in unison, Lucy's face scrunched up at the nickname but she snickered anyway, waving them off she made her way out of the guild and to her own home.

She woke up earlier than she was supposed to, she felt like she was being watched and she sat up in bed staring out the window, She didn't see anything, and she would have crept over to it but it was a bit chilly in her room, and instead she pulled the covers over her head and huddled under them for warmth. If she had looked out the window she would have seen a dark figure had indeed been watching her.

The next time she woke up was twenty minutes before six, realizing if she didn't bolt she'd be late; she rushed around the room digging her clothes out, strewing them everywhere, and pulling everything on while saying _shitshitsshit_ over and over again .

"C'MON!" She shouted at her shirt when it wouldn't obey her, when she finally got ready she summoned Virgo and had the maiden rush her to the train station as quickly as possible.

She made it in the nick of time, the two bookworms patiently waiting for her "sorry I tossed and turned all night." Lucy explained, they nodded and everyone boarded the train.

The three mages sat in comfortable silence on the way there, letting the scenery pass them by, Lucy and Levy eventually drifted off and Freed poured over one of Lucy's books again, casually reading it.

When they arrived at the town, they immediately went searching for the book at the nearest library and found no luck; they went to every library and bookstore they could find and it was starting to get late when they reached the last one in town, a small second hand store. "Couldn't crux have told us which library it was in? Or bookstore for that matter?" Freed asked Lucy, they were all exhausted by then.

Lucy shook her head "he said he could only pinpoint the general area, I don't know what it is about these books, but they seem impervious to magic, so I'm amazed he found one at all, if he even did." She shrugged her shoulders; she was starting to doubt her spirits abilities.

They entered the little book store and browsed through it again, Crux was at least able to give them a name, which they were grateful for. Levy was asking the store owner if he had any books by that name, but he said lots of books came and went, and they would have to look for themselves.

Lucy inwardly groaned, she was so sick of thumbing the spines, this had been fun at first but they were tired and ready to go home.

Her fingers suddenly stroked the spine of what felt like an old leather bound volume and the name of the book they had been looking for glittered a fine sheen of silver, just like all the other ones she had. "Yes!" She shouted excitedly grabbing it.

"Did you find it?" Levy asked rounding the corner, Freed wasn't too far behind.

"I did!" Lucy waved it in the air to show them, a victorious smile graced her face.

"Awesome let's get out of here, and rent a hotel room I need sleep!" Levy said as she arched her back to pop her spine, Lucy whole-heartedly agreed and Freed looked rather distraught.

"We should really be getting back to Magnolia" he told them "Laxus-sama may be worried about us." _Or antsy about Lucy_ he thought, he did not want to be responsible for them being late, but the two girls waved him off.

"Tell you what" Lucy told him smiling and handing him the book after it was paid for and they had left the shop, "how about you go back with the book and Levy and I are going to spend the night here and probably shop around some time tomorrow morning, we'll be back after that okay?"

Freed took the book, he wasn't going to argue, he already fantasized about sitting in that train and having some peace and quiet and this special little tome all to himself, the first to read it.

They said their farewells and parted ways; the girls quickly found a hotel and crashed for the night.

.

..

* * *

..

.

Sometime the next morning every member of fairy Tail looked at their beloved guild in shock, it was torn to shreds, it looked like a tornado had ripped through it, "who did this?!" Natsu yelled, and everyone started to get angry, demanding to know who the culprit was.

"It was Phantom Lord" Mira told them sadly by now the guild members crowded around Master Makarov in the basement of the guild, all chattering asking him what they were going to do next until he'd had enough "QUIET!" He bellowed "we are to do nothing; I want everyone to stay together for now."

"What? That's ridiculous gramps!" Natsu yelled, Laxus picked him up suddenly by the back of his scarf and tossed him into the wall.

"You heard the old man, quit it Natsu." He sneered at the younger dragon slayer, who was quick to get back up and race to the lightning dragon slayer but he knocked him out with one punch.

Gajeel rolled his eyes, and turned to the green haired man next to him "when are the girls supposed to be back Freed?" He asked him.

"I don't know, it should be anytime soon." Freed told him.

"Maybe we should head to the train station." Laxus suggested, Gajeel nodded and they made their way in that direction.

It was taking forever, the two men paced back and forth as train after train departed and passengers got off but there was no sign of the two girls. Laxus stomach was roiling, this didn't sit well with him, they should have gone with them.

They heard a commotion and went to check out what everyone was yapping about, "yeah pinned to a tree in the park." They heard someone say.

"Wonder what that's about?" Gajeel commented.

Laxus started heading in that direction, "my hunch is that Phantom Lord has another surprise waiting, let's check it out."

They weren't prepared for the little bluenette hanging from a large tree by chains, painted on her stomach was the symbol of Phantom Lord.

Gajeel immediately leaped up and tore at them, when Levy fell he gently reached out and caught her, leaping back down he had her small form cradled in his arms. The man looked torn up, fear and rage twisting his features, his face reflected what Laxus felt, because Lucy was nowhere to be found.

Where the hell was she? He was starting to feel panic rising in his chest.

"I can take my headquarters being reduced to rubble," Master Makarov had appeared and was walking up to Levy "but I will not let harm come to my children without taking revenge," he crushed his staff in his grip," we have no choice but to go to war!"

 **Keep in mind that in this alternative universe with Juvia and Gajeel already being a part of Fairy Tail, there is no element 4, I've filled in the gaps the best I can though with the upcoming chapter and the replacements for the missing Phantom Lord guild members.**

 **We have people coming into town and although I've already started the next chapter, I won't be able to continue writing it until this weekend.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

 **French words used: cible (Target) en vitesse (basically means quickly/rapidly) petite fille (little girl) I totally copped off google translate btw, Enjoy!**

Lucy and Levy were on their way to the hotel when someone literally popped up out of the ground in front of them, "Oui! Oui! Monsieur Erigor it has seems we have found our cible!" The man danced and twirled in front of the two girls who were totally creeped out.

"Did he just say..?" Levy began, Lucy finished for her.

"Target." She said quietly eyeing the man suspiciously.

Someone chuckled darkly on the roof of a building next to them and there hunkered down staring was what Lucy would have imagined what the grim reaper would look like, you know… because he had scythe.

The way he was holding it; was as if it were nothing, the same way she held her hammer.

He was also bare chested and his white hair all spiked up, she would have actually thought he looked pretty cool, if she wasn't wary of the dark aura surrounding him. She put a hand out to Levy, almost as if she were going to push her friend behind her.

"Who are you and what do you want?" She said through bared teeth, she didn't like this situation at all, foreboding blossomed in her chest.

"We came looking for a certain mage that ran away from home." The grim reaper told her, he jumped down from the roof and was now standing in front of her, next to the strange green haired man who was twisting his monocle around and had the creepiest cheeky grin she had ever seen.

"And who would that be?" Lucy asked carefully, even though she dreaded the answer.

Erigor smirked darkly, "A certain little daddy's girl, an heiress and he wants her back." He eyed her; curious to what she would do next.

"I'm not going back!" Lucy bit out, fully understanding the situation, her fear hit her like a sledge hammer, the thing she didn't _want_ to hear was just said aloud in the quiet peacefulness of daytime. "You can tell my father to kiss my ass!" She hissed.

Erigor chuckled, "I like this one, she's feisty." He grinned maniacally down at her "too bad though blondie, we got paid off pretty handsomely by your father and we're not about to just give up on that reward money." He told her.

"Don't you _dare_ call me that." She fumed, if anything, only Laxus was allowed to call her that.

"What is he talking about Lulu?" Levy had been quiet throughout the exchange up until now; she wanted to know what was going on with her friend. Levy looked back and forth between Lucy and the two male mages, she had a feeling Lucy had been keeping secrets a long time ago, back when the blonde celestial mage first joined the guild, but she didn't think they would pose this kind of threat against her best friend, and in her mind she was screaming for answers.

"Oh she didn't tell you?" He asked the bluenette mockingly, he was going to answer for her unbeknownst to him. "Your friend here is an heiress of the Heartfilia bloodline, _Lucy Heartfilia_ " He let the name roll off his tongue and sneered in satisfaction.

"Lucy, is that true?" Levy asked her best friend bewildered "You said your name was Lucy Love."

Lucy turned away from her friend, she wasn't sure what to say to her right now, but then they both looked up as the white haired mage laughed hysterically; he was clearly enjoying the drama. Lucy was tired of him goading the situation, she clenched her teeth "Like I said _asshole_ , I'm not going back!" She flicked her hammer around and set herself in a fighting stance "and if I have to teach you a lesson in leaving me the fuck alone, I will." She leveled him with a glare, daring him to challenge her.

The green haired man interrupted before Erigor could speak "Monsieur Erigor we must finish the job en vitesse!" He twisted his monocle again, as much as he loved good entertainment, it would have to be at least shortened; their Master was waiting.

Erigor grunted but grinned wickedly again and faced the two girls, Lucy was ready and Levy behind her was too, "I got your back Lulu!" The bluenette shouted, it didn't matter what kind of secrets Lucy had kept, she was still going to be there for her friend.

"Oh is that so?" Erigor asked her scornfully, suddenly the air picked up " _wind wall_!" They heard him shout and Levy was suddenly in the middle of what looked like a tornado.

" _Levy_!" Lucy shouted, she almost dropped her hammer in shock but instead she raced over to the tornado in an attempt to get her out.

"I wouldn't if I were you," suddenly Erigor was in front of her and throwing her violently away from her trapped friend "you may be able to get in, but neither of you will get out as long as I have any say in the matter."

"What are you talking about?!" Lucy snapped at him.

Erigor crossed his arms and looked down at the celestial mage smirking, "my wind wall will shred her to pieces if she tries to escape," a loud cry of pain issued from inside the monstrous wind, as he said the words, punctuating his threat.

Lucy looked at it in horror, she grabbed her keys, Loke abruptly popped out next to her "I'm here to assist you princess," he said darkly eyeing the man in front of them.

"I wouldn't" Erigor taunted them grinning "if you make any move, I'll kill her" he stated coldly.

Lucy felt despair welling up inside of her, Loke turned to her with a worried expression on his face, "it doesn't matter, you'll kill her even if I go with you, there's still a chance I might be able to save her." Lucy said defiantly.

"So are you willing to gamble your friend's life?" He sneered, and as if to answer her, the wind wall contracted again and another painful cry broke through.

Lucy felt tears of rage forming; knowing she would never indeed gamble her friends life, she dropped her hammer to the ground, the sound of it hitting with a loud thud, her lion turned to her with a pained expression "Lucy…" he whispered.

She didn't look at him "force gate close," she said quietly, Loke reached for her but he was too late, he vanished, she dropped her keys next. "Fine" she told him, the man with monocle did something she didn't bother registering and a giant fist wrapped around her squeezing the breath out of her, it was painful and an involuntary scream escaped her.

The wind wall stopped, Levy had cuts all over her and she looked in horror as her best friend was squeezed to the point of passing out "stop!" She cried, begging.

Erigor looked down at the bluenette grinning, he punched the small girl, knocking her out, "what will you do with la petite fille?" Sol asked his companion.

Erigor gave him a smug grin and picked her up, she hung limply over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, "you take the heiress back to Jose" He told him "Me? I'm gonna pay Fairy Tail a visit." He shifted the girl's weight before he took off leaving Sol to do what needed to be done.

.

..

..

.

When Fairy Tail bust through Phantom Lords guild doors, Laxus wanted to be the first person to take on Jose, but after a lot of convincing from his team, Gajeel, Erza and his grandfather mainly, who all pointed out Jose's being a wizard saint and Laxus would not do anyone - let alone Lucy - any favors getting himself injured, or worse; killed.

All of Fairy Tail itself; save for Levy, Mira and Wendy had joined the fight, ready to pound the dirt of Phantom Lords thugs, none more so than the S-class team and the Master himself.

Makarov towered over the thugs of Phantom Lord and disappeared to confront Jose while Laxus started picking off mages one by one with his fellow guild mates, "WHERE IS SHE?!" He bellowed at one of the men he picked up, "I-I don't know!" the man stuttered and Laxus smashed his fist in his face, going for the next, and so on, soon he left a trail of knocked out men, blood broken noses and teeth.

Erigor was watching with amusement on the beams above the guild hall, finally after getting bored with his entertainment he dropped down below in front of Laxus who narrowed his eyes at the grinning man.

"Well if it isn't Fairy Tails, what second best? No… Third best? Heh guess it's better than nothing," Elfman tried to rush the white haired, scythe slinging bastard, but Gajeel blocked him, Laxus threw himself into his attack with everything he had, but Erigor dodged it.

Momentarily lost in the throes of battle, the blood thirsty hunger that gnawed at him opened like a wound, he wanted to kill this son of a bitch, he took his mate away but his anger was clouding his thoughts and he attacked mercilessly.

Erigor had a hard time keeping up with the lightning dragon slayer, he dodged the attacks and Laxus was about to send another when someone put a hand on his shoulder, he whipped around to see it was none other than Gajeel. "Let me handle this" Gajeel said with a inaudible growl, and if Laxus didn't understand before, he definitely did now and as much as he wanted to beat the hell out of this creep, he couldn't take it away from the man who was burning with an equal rage to his own.

Laxus stepped aside with a smirk "you pissed off the wrong guy, you poor bastard" he commented to Erigor who's eyes went from Laxus to a now pissed off Gajeel, they both suddenly went at it while Laxus started beating up opponent after opponent, practically stepping on mages, Laxus started shocking the floor beneath him sending a wave of electricity outward, he had a smug grin on his face

Up in the rafters, higher than Erigor had been stood three mages calmly watching the scene unfold; "Let me go down there Ikaruga," A man with wildly long hair and rocker make-up on hissed excitedly at the pink haired woman standing next to him. She sighed in a bored tone, "go ahead Vidaldus, even though it's explicitly against Master Jose's orders, I'm sure what he doesn't know won't hurt him," she said with a sly smile.

A giant half man half owl being hunkered down to peer at the fight more closely as the rocker jumped down to the level below, "this should be a little more interesting hmmm Hukuro?" The pink haired woman, Ikaruga asked the owl/man, "Things were starting to get boring." The owl/man turned his beady eyes on her while she spoke before turning back to the scene about to unfold.

The rocker landed in front of Laxus with a wide grin and his tongue out, he stared at the blonde haired man who looked confused and a little annoyed, it was bad enough Bickslow did it; this creep didn't need to do it too.

"What do you want?" He growled at the newcomer.

"LET'S ROOOOOCK!" Suddenly rocker freak whipped a guitar out and blasted Laxus away from him, Laxus quickly summersaulted and landed in a cat like crouch on his feet, looking up at the long haired mage who was swinging said hair wildly, head banging to his own music.

"Tch," Laxus rolled his eyes and then rushed at his opponent setting a perfect blow from his fist, connecting to the Vidaldus's cheek.

Vidaldus got up, rubbing his face "that was actually impressive" he said cackling, he whipped his hair around and cracked the floor where Laxus was seconds ago, "quit dodging!" He cackled again and tried once more to catch Laxus with his black mane.

"Fucking shit!" Laxus spat out through his teeth, he was getting angrier; this guy had it coming now. "Lightning Dragon's ROAR!" He shouted, but Vidaldus avoided it smoothly, and the attack landed on Natsu and Erza who were still fighting.

"Son of a _BITCH_!" Laxus growled and went after him again, fists flying everywhere, the cackling rocker dodging and laughing with that stupid tongue hanging out.

Master Makarov in the meantime had made it up to the top floor of Jose's guild, angrily stomping and crushing the floor beneath him, shattering windows, he was within Jose's range when he shouted at him "JOSE!"

Master Jose, looking as dark as usual smiled condescendingly at the little old man in front of him, black lips curling like the Cheshire cat, he chuckled darkly "look what the cat dragged in" he said almost too low for the Master to hear.

Master wasn't in the mood for his antics, his power stormed around him, blazing almost white hot, "Why are you attacking Fairy Tail and Levy?! Why did you kidnap Lucy? Tell me!" He went to swing his arm around, intending to crush the man before him, when suddenly Lucy appeared in front of Jose, knocked out and tied up; he suddenly stopped "Lucy…" He was so intent on Lucy's bound figure he hadn't noticed that someone appeared behind him. A dark magic and wind whipped his hair as he faced the newcomer who was crying and muttering incomprehensive words, a light appeared blinding the old man who staggered away from it and fell, down a hole in the ground that appeared suddenly, he felt sick, he felt like he was in pain and as he fell, he felt despair for his children.

The impact Makarov had made immediately grabbed everyone's attention, and when the cloud of dust disappeared Fairy Tail was rendered into shock and horror as they saw the guild master lying there looking green in the face and moaning.

"Gramps!" Laxus was the first there followed by Erza, Phantom Lord were suddenly feeling very confident as they struck at Fairy Tail with renewed vigor, everyone tried to fight but Laxus and Erza gave each other a look, knowing what they needed to do.

"Everyone retreat!" Erza cried out.

She was met with a chorus of refusals; Laxus was right there with her, "everyone out!" He bellowed throwing Natsu out the door who tried to get back into the fight, Vidaldus chuckled along with Erigor who both flew back to the rafters, Erigor chuckled next to Aria, the man who had severely wounded the Master "so where's the girl?" He asked him, he had been busy with other things after all, he grinned at the thought of the cruelty he done to Levy.

Aria answered "She is being held in the cell of the headquarters." He told the man next to him, the dragon slayers below gave each other a look when they heard the exchange.

Outside both men found a random thug coming back from wherever he had been, he looked up to see two angry and maliciously grinning men staring down at him arms crossed.

"You're gonna tell us where the headquarters are, or we're gonna make your life miserable." Gajeel told him, his eyes were shining red.

Laxus suddenly picked the guy up and slammed him into the guilds brick wall, "If you don't I'll teleport you up in the sky with me, and drop you." He growled dangerously, he zapped him for good measure, if it had been anyone else, maybe the guy would have resisted a little, but he gave the information up pretty easily to Laxus, who knocked him out

"I'll leave you to it." Gajeel said, they nodded at each other and Laxus took off to get Lucy back.

.

..

..

.

Lucy woke up in the dark cell and immediately sat up to observe her surroundings, wincing at the pain of the rope digging into her bound wrists.

"Ahh your awake!" Someone sneered at her, she looked around for the noise, really disoriented for a moment, she finally saw a door and through the bars she saw a face she didn't recognize.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her brows furrowing in distaste.

The cell door opened to reveal the dark guild master, she growled at him, "if you think I'm going back to my father, your dead wrong." She told him "I will get out of here." She stated, giving him a level look.

Master Jose couldn't believe it, she was serious?! He cackled again "wouldn't you be more comfortable in some place other than this dark cell?" He asked sweetly, diverting the subject at hand "a highborn woman such as yourself, can't quite possibly be okay sitting in this place, if you promise to cooperate I'm sure I could arrange something more comfortable for you." He told her.

Lucy shook her head "no thanks, I told you I'm getting out; so I don't need your offer."

Jose looked at her with amusement, like a cat watching his prey before he did something she hadn't expected, he opened the cell door. "Go right ahead, sweetheart" he said smoothly, bowing a little, with artificial flair. His hand was pointing the way to blissful freedom, and of course Lucy was suspicious.

She got up and slowly made her way to the door, keeping a careful eye on the sleaze, she gasped when she saw why he was so eager to show her the way to freedom, apparently her cell was on the top of a tower, and with no way down except to jump.

Lucy's heart beat wildly, she didn't want to stay here, she wanted to go home; to Fairy Tail the only place she ever felt warmth, comfort and friendship, her family. She wasn't going to stay here, and she wasn't going back.

Fear was gripping her throat, and she couldn't think straight, she couldn't go back, she knew what her father was going to do if she did, and she didn't want the life that was surely waiting for her.

She turned around to the smug look of the phantom lord's guild master and suddenly with one swift kick she connected with his privates and sent him sprawling on the ground clutching himself, "told you I'd get out of here" she said and turned to look at the ground below one more time.

" _Are you crazy_?!" Jose squeaked, still in shock from the pain, he was holding himself and still wincing, his face had gone white.

Lucy stared at him quietly "I'm not going back to the life I had" She said in a low voice, almost talking to herself, "I'd rather die" before she could rethink her actions she had turned to face the cell doors and tipped herself backward to the air, it surrounded her almost lifting her, but then she fell like a stone.

Panic instantly set in, what had she done? Why did she do just do that? But it was too late and with tears of regret stinging her eyes she braced for impact.

It came, but not in the way she expected, the impact was that of strong arms pulling her against a strong chest and the tingling feeling of lightning enveloping her body before she heard the muffled footsteps of someone dropping to the ground softly.

"Lucy…" she heard her name and she looked up, Laxus had a grim look on his face, as he silently questioned her.

Lucy's tears spilled out and she clutched his shirt to her as she cried "I was being stupid, that was a really stupid thing to do, and I don't know why I felt so desperate!" She sobbed, knowing how close she came to death, she felt like the biggest idiot on Earthland.

"Why?" He asked out loud finally.

"I don't want to talk about it" she said as he had set her down, though rather reluctantly.

He grunted "we'll talk about this eventually" he promised before starting to walk away from her.

"Where are you going?" she asked him, looking at him him with bewilderment, he noted the tears made her eyes look so much bigger and doe like than they already were.

"I'm gonna go kick this son of a bitch's ass" He said turning to her, with that he turned to leave, to march into the headquarters and wreak havoc, since when had he become like Natsu? The far back of his mind registered, going head first into situations without thinking was more his forte, not Laxus. He didn't really care though, so he barely hesitated, but was suddenly stopped by Lucy's heavy sobs.

"Don't!" Lucy begged, surprising him, he stood there as she huddled against his chest, she had raced around him and practically tackled him into the ground, holding him as tightly as possible she wept. A shocked Laxus put could only put his hand on the back of her head to hold her gently, as her tears soaked through his shirt; he listened to her pleading voice " _please_! I just want to go home!" She said in between her tears "I don't want to stay here; I want to see Levy, see if she's alright! I want to see my nakama!"

Laxus heart broke for her, he picked her up gently, wiping away the tears with his thumb "okay" he said softly, revenge forgotten for the moment, her eyes were still watery but she looked grateful, exhausted, she was starting to fall asleep again so he started teleporting his way back to Magnolia, back to Fairy Tail.

.

..

..

.

Lucy held her head in her hands, sitting on some crates back at the guild, she was rubbing her temples and overwhelming guilt slammed into her over and over again.

"I'm sorry" she whispered "I didn't think he'd find me, I don't even know how he did at all' she looked up at everyone pleading with them silently to understand, she was mistaking the looks of grimness and determination as hatred toward her, "I made sure every trace of me was wiped out" she tried to explain, but she slumped feeling defeated.

"Lucy no one blames you." Erza came over to her and put her arm around her sister, "we love you and we'll do anything to make sure you stay with us"

A chorus of _yeahs_! Filled the air and fists were raised in eagerness, ready for another fight. "Why didn't you tell us?" Laxus asked her, and everyone turned to him.

"I wanted to forget my past" Lucy said in a low voice, people had to strain to even hear her, the only ones who did hear her loud and clear were the dragon slayers and Erza who was sitting right next her, her arm still around her comrade.

"I didn't want to associate myself with it anymore, I wanted to wipe the slate clean, and I don't want to talk about it any further." She hung her head in shame "I can't, the words won't come."

Erza rubbed Lucy's arm comfortingly "its okay Lucy, tell us when you're ready" she assured her, giving Laxus a glare, he nodded in all seriousness he wasn't going to push it, but he strode across the room tired of the guilt he could sense from her.

He and the red head exchanged looks, staring each other down. She gave him the sharpest glare she could muster almost trying to cut him with her eyes, she was telling him not to hurt her friend… or else, and with that Lucy felt the warmth of her sister slide from her and become replaced by another warmth.

Laxus picked her up gently and set her down on his lap, she looked up startled, "what are you doing?" She asked.

"Comforting you" he told her so simply, as if it was so obvious, Lucy looked at him for a moment as if she were deciding something, then she laid her head on his chest and soaked his warmth in as he held her, people gave him curious glances but everyone had pretty much figured it out by now. Lucy was his, and no one was going to take her away from him.

Suddenly the ground shook beneath them, and the members of Fairy Tail looked wildly around wondering what was happening, Lucy awoke with a start and gave Laxus a questioning look, "I don't know." He replied.

She scrambled off his lap as she trailed after everyone who was racing outside to see what was making all the noise as well as the earth move from underneath their feet.

Everyone looked in horror as a giant mechanical spider with Phantom Lords guild hall on top, waded through the water heading straight for Fairy Tail.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Phantom Lords guild hall was slowly making its way toward them from the ocean, shaking Magnolia with every step it took; it looked to her, like a giant crab with a castle on-top.

Lucy watched with everyone else horrified as it lumbered up to them and stopped suddenly, "what is it doing?!" Someone in the crowd around her asked no one particular.

It was answered for them when one of the walls of the guild dropped down and revealed what looked like a giant cannon slowly descending outward, one section at a time until it finally rested and sat there silently for a minute, no one dared to breathe.

A dark purple magical mass began to form from the mouth, Erza turned to everyone suddenly "Everybody run!" She shouted and then took off reequipping into her adamantine armor, she brought her shield up as the blast from the cannon fired, sending the dark pulse after them.

Lucy ran forward out of instinct, but Laxus caught her around the wrist and kept her from racing to Erza's side. She screamed out her friend's name "You can't do this, STOP!" Lucy shouted to both the red haired mage and Phantom Lord Guild master, Jose.

"ERZA!" She screamed again as the blast hit the reequip mage; she staggered and slid back but otherwise held her own. "Let go of me!" She snarled at Laxus, but instead he wound his arms around her tighter and held her as she struggled between trying to get him to let go, and attempting to see what was going on since he had her half turned and the other guild members were blocking her view.

The blast stopped and they all heard the telltale sound of Erza's armor breaking from the damage, she flew through the air and landed on the ground harshly. Laxus let Lucy go and the blonde raced over practically throwing herself down next to her.

"Erza, why would you do something like that?!" She yelled at the red head, "are you insane?!" She screamed, she gripped her friends hand tightly, Wendy ran up on the other side of her, Mira had Erza's head in her lap. Everyone looked worried, while Wendy healed the her.

Jose's voice spoke over a lacrima loudly, addressing Fairy Tail. "Your guild master has fallen, and we have the upper hand, with powerful mages and the Jupiter cannon" something shot out of the guild and raced toward the lot, everyone peered at the owl/man that flew toward them with rockets strapped to his back.

"What the hell?" Grey shouted, they all prepared for him to either attack or take Lucy, the S-class team along with Elfman and Freed stood surrounding Lucy protectively, but they didn't prepare for the owl/man to swoop in on the bluenette, Juvia.

He swallowed her; everyone looked at him disbelievingly as he swallowed Juvia and took off "Ice make cannon!" Grey shouted firing at the creature, but he dodged it "Juvia!" Grey shouted racing after her, but she wouldn't hear him, the owl's stomach bulged with her inside, terrified, stood there shaking, fists clenched in anger. "What the fuck was that about?" Laxus bellowed.

Fairy Tail was in an uproar, Jose chuckled over the lacrima "now we have another ace up our sleeve, and at our disposal." He purred over the loudspeaker, "Surrender Lucy Heartfilia to us immediately."

"There is no way in hell you're getting her!" Laxus bellowed at him Fairy Tail's uproar could be heard for miles with a chorus of 'NEVER'S' ringing through the streets of Magnolia. Lucy's tears streaked down her cheeks for her fellow guild members; she felt love for her guild mates pouring out of her heart and shame for being so useless without her weapon or her hammer.

"Fine!" Jose sounded pissed "if you don't surrender the girl, I'll fire another round of Jupiter's cannon at you!" He threatened "you have fifteen minutes!"

.

* * *

.

"There, she should be all right, but she'll be out for a while" Wendy told them, they had Erza laid out on one of the spare guild hall tables, they made it as comfortable as possible for her, but they knew it still wasn't enough.

Lucy looked out the window at the Jupiter cannon, wondering where Jose was in the entire guild hall, they had sent Gajeel in to destroy Jupiter, while Bickslow and Freed weren't too far behind trying to locate Hukuro and maybe get Juvia back. Laxus was going to go in and see if he couldn't figure out a way to destroy Phantom Lord from the inside out, but first him and Mira were dealing with Lucy.

"Quit being stubborn Blondie." Laxus scolded her, arms crossed over his chest.

"Lucy please, you need to go into hiding" Mira begged her; Wendy and Reed were standing there awkwardly as the exchange prattled on.

"Do you really expect me to just sit around while you guys fight Phantom Lord?" Lucy sliced her hand in the air out of anger "after what they did to Erza? First Levy and now her; and this is all because of me and you guys know it, but I'm supposed to sit back and hide somewhere, yeah." She was furious with the takeover mage and Laxus, they had no right to tell her what to do.

10 MINUTES UNTIL JUPITERS FIRE.

"Lucy!" Mira was getting frustrated "we really don't have time for this, we need to figure out a way to stop Phantom Lord, I'm sorry honey…" her voice turned soft "you can't do anything right now, without your hammer or your keys, you're…"

"Useless" Lucy muttered bitterly while looking down at the ground hard, Mira couldn't finish the sentence , so she did it for her, but that didn't stop the slice of pain lancing through her heart.

"I know better than anyone, what it feels like to be useless." Mira said quietly, her hands were wringing her pink dress, and she looked close to tears, Lucy looked up at her sympathetically.

The blonde sighed in defeat "I'll go, but just you two remember, I don't like it." She pointed at them.

"Reed!" Mira turned to the painter.

"Oui" he replied painting up a carriage and a hog to pull it. "Wendy you're going too" Mira turned to the bluenette.

Wendy looked stricken "what?!"" she exclaimed, "but I want to fight!" She shouted at Mira who smiled down at her apologetically.

"Wendy you're too young for all of this, we don't want you getting hurt!" Charle scolded her, nodding in approval at Mira's request.

"She's right Wendy, this is no fight for young girls your age, you should be joining Lucy where it's safe" Mira pointed out gently.

"You can keep me company" Lucy offered smiling, "besides other than that one time we got ice cream we haven't really gotten to know each other," she smiled brightly and held her hand out to her, Wendy beamed and took Lucy's hand eagerly.

"Okay, I'll protect you if something happens!" She said determinedly.

Lucy laughed "I'm sure you will" she affectionately ruffled the little girl's hair.

They both climbed up in the carriage and it took off for the warehouse, Laxus and Mira watched it disappear before Mira transformed into Lucy, "are you going after them?" She asked the lightning mage

"Of course, no one hurts what's mine and gets away with it."

Laxus looked over at the white haired mage when she didn't say anything. He jumped back when he saw drool coming out of her mouth and hearts in her eyes, she squeaked.

"Mira, there's no time for your antics" he growled.

She punched him in the arm "You're right Laxus, but don't think I'm letting this go, I will hunt you down after and get answers from you… about how cute your babies are gonna be!" She squealed.

Laxus rolled his eyes and ran off, more or less running away from her craziness.

Mira shook her head recovering, and smiling. He was right, she needed to keep her head in the game, she went back to the shadows of the guild hall, waiting, if all else failed she could be somewhat useful.

5 MINUTES UNTIL JUPITERS FIRE.

.

* * *

.

5 MINUTES UNTIL JUPITERS FIRE.

 _This guy is unbelievable_ Gajeel thought as Vidaldus swung his hair around "Yeah! _Baby_!" He cried blasting his guitar at him; every time Gajeel tried to get to the Lacrima the idiot rocker freak blocked his path.

It was hard for dragon slayer to concentrate on avoiding Vidaldus's attacks, attacking him himself, and trying to get to the Lacrima all at the same time, but the Lacrima was first priority and he needed to come up with a plan.

 _If I don't, Fairy Tail is toast_. He thought darkly to himself.

He sent punches blazing at the freak whom was dodging them with ease, Gajeel knew his desperation was getting the best of him, but he couldn't help it. Five more minutes, he thought, and he picked up speed, trying to pummel the mime looking freak.

Vidaldus was unfazed; he whipped his hair around catching Gajeel by the leg and flipping him.

 _Damnit_! He cursed internally as he crashed to the floor; he wiped the blood off his mouth. Gajeel kept sending his iron fists toward the lacrima while Vidaldus easily swiped him away with nothing but his fucking hair.

Gajeel flipped over the mage high in the air and launched at the crystal, he was almost there… he could feel the glass shattering under his fist and he grinned in satisfaction.

Vidaldus had other plans though, and caught him around the foot just in time, his fist inches from the surface of the lacrima and he flung him backward into a wall.

Gajeel launched at him and punched him across the jaw finally landing a hit, the rocker mage stumbled backward and Gajeel flew backward ready to strike again.

Another guitar blast had the iron dragon slayers feet scraping along the floor and his arms up and crossed to ward off the sonic boom.

1 MINUTE UNTIL JUPITER FIRES. The annoying woman's ominous voice spoke over the lacrima speakers, _fuck_! Gajeel wiped a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.

he lowered his arms to see Vidaldus cracking up, "what's so damn funny?!" he bit out sending an iron fist at him, Vidaldus grabbed his hands and legs with his hair spinning him around the room, Gajeel felt like throwing up and he grit his teeth against the roiling in his stomach, throwing random punches out until finally he landed a lucky hit.

Vidaldus cackled again "I am gonna rock your wooooorld!" He sang, another guitar blast sending Gajeel backward again.

30 SECONDS UNTIL JUPITER FIRES

Gajeel had had enough, he started ramming punches into Vidaldus, one after the other, and he didn't notice that the mage was moving closer and closer to the lacrima.

10… 9… 8… 7… 6… Gajeel jumped sending another blow into the ground uprooting the stone floor, Vidaldus cackled and moved easily away from his attack and stood in front of the lacrima.

5… 4… 3… 2…

Gajeel sent another iron fist attack, at the man before he realized he was too late, his anger at the mage made him forget about the cannon, _oh no_ , he thought horrified, his eyes wide with fear.

Vidaldus avoided the attack however and it smashed into the lacrima with ease.

"What the?" Gajeel said out loud, he was completely confused, Vidaldus was cracking up hysterically.

Gajeel growled "what the hell?!" He shouted at the long haired man retracting his fist he hunkered down slightly out of breath from the ordeal, Vidaldus copied him and had a shit eating grin on his face.

"You let me destroy it." Gajeel muttered, it was not a question.

"Of course!" Vidaldus stood and bowed ungraceful, his movement jittery, "now the real fun will begin!" He cackled again, and Gajeel shuddered.

 _Real fun, what did he mean by that_?

.

* * *

.

Jose pounded the arm of his chair in annoyance, "sir… Jupiter-" but he was cut off when Phantom Lord's guild master growled at him, "I know!" He snapped.

 _I guess I should bring out my next weapon_ , he thought. "Turn the loud speakers on." He commanded. They did as they were told everyone in magnolia and phantom Lord's hall could hear his snake like voice over the lacrima speakers.

"Listen up pathetic fairies, you may have foiled my plans with the Jupiter cannon, but I have something else in store for you." Phantom Lord grinned when he saw over the screen the look of confusion and horror replace cheers of triumph.

"As I said, bring me Lucy Heartfilia, or suffer the consequences!" With that he shut the communication off and turned to the closest person to him "Awaken the giant."

"Yes sir!" The man said and they all got to work.

Suddenly the guild hall shifted, and started moving around violently throwing its members and any of Fairy Tail around inside it.

Vidaldus was laughing hysterically at Gajeel's expense when the floor shifted under his feet, his motion sickness getting the best of him.

 _What the hell is going on_?! He inwardly cursed, holding his stomach and mouth sliding around on the floor comically as it moved beneath him.

Laxus had just gotten to the inside of the hall when it moved around on him, " _fuck_!" He spat clutching his own stomach and almost hurling on the floor. The whole hall shook around him and it was awhile before it finally stopped but thanks goodness it did, he breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief was short lived as the ground then moved like water and up out of it came a man leering at him "Bonjour Monsieur Dreyar! You have come to pay poor Sol a visit Oui?" His leering grin made Laxus feel sicker than the motion sickness had.

.

* * *

.

Gajeel was getting up and Vidaldus was again hunkered down peering at him, something zoomed out of the darkness of the doorway, and hit him in the head while he had been pre occupied, watching the iron dragon slayers sickness with amusement, giggling madly at him.

Vidaldus swung around suddenly, and out of the shadows came another tongue grinning idiot, Bickslow who was followed closely by Freed.

"Let me handle this one Freed." Bickslow chuckled; Freed inclined his head and allowed his friend to do what he wished.

"C'mon babies!" Bickslow threw his hands out, "Go!" He laughed and his totems dispersed into the air launching themselves at Vidaldus.

Vidaldus dodged them easily but they kept launching themselves at him, they were faster than he had anticipated but he was finally having some real fun.

"About time I got a more interesting opponent!" He laughed hysterically, and Bickslow grinned. Gajeel and Freed sweat dropped, they were a little more similar than the two cared to admit.

Vidaldus and Bickslow went head to head, sparring as equals as it was with him and Gajeel, but Bickslow was having about enough and lifted his visor, he finally used his figure eyes and busted out laughing making the long haired man slap himself over and over in the face with his own hair.

Gajeel had enough himself and punched the lights out of the rocker.

"We don't have time for games" he growled at the punk mage, who shrugged and grinned.

Freed nodded vigorously, "I agree with Gajeel, we must find out what is happening as soon as possible, it appears Master Jose has another trick up his sleeve." He informed them.

"Yeah I heard" Gajeel replied worriedly, they were heading out another doorway deeper into the guild hall, and they came upon a fork, after some debate, Gajeel and Bickslow went one way and Freed the other.

.

* * *

.

Freed walked in silence, he had insisted going alone, he was still a little vexed about having not gotten S-class and this was his way of restoring his honor.

He reached a room and small pink petals were floating everywhere, a woman stood at a distance from him. "Hello Freed Justine, my name is Ikaruga" The pink haired woman introduced herself, he saw a long thin katana at her side, she seemed poised and relaxed but he knew better.

Freed pulled his own sword from its sheath and readied the blade, "may I inquire as to how you know my name?" He asked politely, his eyes flicking back and forth between her face and the sword she carried.

Ikaruga smiled softly, "it is my job as an assassin to know, with which whom I am dealing with." She replied politeness in return.

Freed nodded in respect, he took a stance and she did as well. Then suddenly silver light filled the room as they flew at each other, steel grinding against steel.

.

* * *

.

Bickslow and Gajeel felt like they really got the shit end of the stick on this one. Hukuro was flying around them screaming a bunch of nonsense and his belly was bulging with Juvia trapped inside, they could see her wiggling around there every now and then and it made them sick to their stomachs watching his skin roll and bulge unnaturally.

"I can't believe he ate her!" Bickslow ground out through his teeth, they both avoided a water slicer attack that cut through the floor and walls.

"Damnit we need to get her out of there." Gajeel growled.

The owl-man-creature-thing chuckled "of course you must!" He taunted them "if you delay I will have fully digested her and absorbed all her magic!" He chuckled and sent another water slicer at Gajeel while water locking Bickslow. The Seith mage and his babies pounded on the barrier relentlessly, Gajeel meanwhile dodged the attacks on him.

 _Damnit not this shit again, I don't have time for games_. He thought as he jumped, flipping and landing where he hoped was far away from the owl freak, he whipped the sweat from his brow trying to come up with some sort of plan.

"Why did you even kidnap her in the first place?" He asked Hukuro as the owl-man-thing flew circles around the room, eyeing the iron dragon slayer with an amused glint in his eye.

"Water, Fire, Air and Earth must be used to complete the spell of _abyss break_. Juvia a seems to be the only water mage we know of at the time being, we fully did our research on your beloved guild before attempting to kidnap Lucy Heartfilia, rest assured." Hukuro informed him.

"Are you serious?" Gajeel sputtered out, this was unbelievable. He could see Juvia struggling around inside of the creatures belly in an attempt to get out, and Bickslow was starting to lose consciousness, he really needed to think of something _fast_.

Gajeel sent an iron fist straight at the owl's stomach, but he avoided the attack, it felt very déjà vu to him, so he decided to switch up tactics. He leapt forward for close combat this time and Hukuro met him half way they were grappling around in the air and he felt the pangs of motions sickness again, but he needed to stay focused, so he fought down the wave of nausea that threatened to take over and he spent that focus on Hukuro's belly trying to pummel Juvia out of him somehow.

Hukuro threw Gajeel off and clutched his stomach in pain, screeching at the iron dragon slayer, the bastard managed to get a few good hits in, and he was feeling it now.

The owl-man-creature-thing rocket himself forward but suddenly stopped, clutching his stomach harder than before, letting out a wail of pain. Gajeel stood up surprised, the water lock fell apart and Bickslow gasped for air, his babies suddenly circling him to comfort the Seith mage.

Gajeel could see hands reaching out desperately and he raced over to help the woman, prying open the mouth of bird. She gasped and screamed in agony and anger as she struggled out of Hukuro's stomach the bird thrashed around but Gajeel used his iron hands to hold on for dear life.

Bickslow seemed to get the message and helped by keeping the creatures mouth open while he concentrated on not letting him get away, Gajeel's iron dug into the stone floors of the guild hall and anchored the thing to himself while he watched the bluenette finally worm her way out.

Juvia finally made it out with one more garbled cry and collapsed on the ground, the owl retched and the two men stepped back quickly in disgust.

"How?" Hukuro asked her weakly.

Juvia stood up; she was poised despite having saliva dripping everywhere from her and her hair plastered to her face. "Juvia would not allow you to use her!" She shouted at the creature "Juvia's nakama gave her strength!" Water flowed upward from her feet into a spiral around her and she came out clean and somehow dry.

She then used water lock on him and sent water blast after water blast knocking Hukuro around, until he finally relented and slumped to his knees which Gajeel gladly took the opportunity to knock him in the head even after he was passed out, just for good measure.

.

* * *

.

Mira stepped from the shadows, the spell was half way done and there seemed to be no sign of it stopping, she walked forward through the crowd and stopped just before the cliff to the sea.

"Mira what are you doing?!" Cana hissed at her.

As Lucy she demanded Jose's attention "I'm giving myself up!" She cried "Stop hurting my friends and I'll go with you!"

She had been disappointed when Jose didn't fall for her trick and instead punished her by picking her up, she screamed in agony and she watched in dismay as her friends continued the battle below, after a minute or so she realized the spell was slowing down.

She heard Elfman calling her name and she looked down to see he was coming for her.

.

* * *

.

"Do you know anything about Abyss break Juvia?" Gajeel asked the water mage, she nodded "Juvia knows it can only be summoned by the four elements, but if they no longer lend their power to the spell it will falter and eventually die out." She had a finger to her chin "Juvia could feel the magical drain, but she released the spell and it is no longer draining her. Juvia's guess is the spell is now slowing down."

"So then we have to defeat the other three mages" Bickslow piped up, a grim look on his face.

"Yeah and one of those mages won't be easy." Gajeel muttered, but the other two heard him and they knew who he was referring to.

Aria of the great sky.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Freed and Ikaruga seemed to be evenly matched, she was unable to destroy his sword because of his rune magic, writing that it could not be shattered by any weapon wielded.

He was writing runes around her faster than she could dodge them, but dodge them she did, and they came head to head again, and again.

She slashed and cut open his shirt leaving a long thin gash across his chest, it was a perfect cut he noticed and admired her work despite their battle.

They weren't getting anywhere though and Freed wrote more runes to trap her somehow, damn near the whole room was written in runes and his magic was fading fast, so he discontinued them landing on the ground panting.

I will dodge all of your runes Freed" Ikaruga spoke softly to him "there is no use in wasting your energy trying to trap me." She flicked her sword out slightly sending another gash into his skin, an X mark across his chest.

Freed clutched his chest in pain knowing she was right so he decided in not wasting any more energy on his failed plan, "Dark Ecriture, absolute shadow." He chanted, darkness consumed him and his place was a shadowy knight, him in his armor.

They clashed again but this time his strength and speed surprised her.

 _I will not fail_. He thought to himself as he continued his assault slowly driving the woman backward away from him, she was so astounded by his new prowess she didn't even realize he had left one more trap. Then suddenly, he leapt away from her and landed softly.

Ikaruga slashed forth but his voice stopped her "I wouldn't" he told her.

"Why?!" she demanded, but she already assumed the answer, Freed smiled at her and it infuriated her beyond belief "Tell me!" She demanded her control slipping.

"You can leave the barrier miss Ikaruga, but your sword will shatter if you do." His smile turned into a haughty smirk, "you're not the only one who has information at their disposal; I just do not relent such information as easily as you do."

Ikaruga stood their dumbfounded, but in a moment the silence of her shock subsided instantly as a loud inhuman screech pierced the air and she made to go after him but the purple shimmer of his barrier stopped her just short of it. "I will get you for this!" She hissed.

Freed paid her no heed and simply turned and left, "good day to you too miss Ikaruga" he replied without a backward glance at the screeching woman slewing out curse words at his back.

.

* * *

.

Laxus was thrown backward into the air, the images of stone Lucy's rejecting him had caught him off guard, and being distracted was something Sol greatly took advantage of.

"Monsieur Dreyar it seems you are keeping secrets from la fille Lucy Heartfilia, no?" He asked him, twisting around in the air. Laxus had to bite back a growl, Sol's _Platra Sonata_ ; the _fist_ was wrapped around him.

Another statue of Lucy appeared and her bright warm chocolate eyes looked at him longingly, she leaned forward and caressed his face, leaving Laxus shuddering at the thought of her touch, even though he knew it wasn't her he still ached inside.

Then she slapped him and the crack resounded in the air, leaving a cold bitter taste in his mouth "how could I love someone like you, especially after when I find out what you did to Fairy Tail?!" She screamed at him. "You're a monster!" She bit out, hatred and loathing coating her flawless face.

Laxus hung his head in shame, she was right, she may not have been real; the Lucy he knew would never say something so cruel but the statuette in front of him was still right though. He was a monster and he didn't deserve someone as beautiful as her.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to protect her with everything he had though, Laxus charged with his lightning and broke free from the hand that gripped him, Sol seemed undisturbed and simply taunted him further.

"La belle fille, she is too beautiful, too graceful for your affections Monsieur Dreyar, you can never be with someone such as her!" He twisted his body and twirled his mustache, his lecherous grin widening.

Laxus could only see red, _I'm her mate_! He shouted to himself, _I must be worthy somehow for that to be true_. He refused to believe this bastards lies.

"And if she rejects you?" Sol asked so simply, that simple question had Laxus reeling over the edge and he blasted his lightning at the earth mage who dodged twisting this way and that sending a barrage of rocks down on the blonde dragon slayer.

The wall blasted apart revealing Laxus and Sol to Fairy Tail, they could see him struggling. "What's wrong with him?" Someone asked "Laxus never gets beaten so easily" another person commented.

Mira had eventually been rescued by Elfman's beast form she along with the other looked up frantically at the scene before them, worry eating away at her brow for her comrades. She felt a presence next to her and looked over to see Erza was standing staring at the two men with a look of determination on her face.

"Erza!" Mira cried, "You shouldn't be up! You should be resting!" She tried to usher the red head back inside the guild but Erza shook her head, and placed her arm gently on Mira's shoulder.

"I'm going back into the fight, and help my friends" she told her, Mira wanted to protest further but Elfman put his own hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"Be careful Erza." Mira relented softly, Erza nodded, reequipping she shot upward and made her own way to Phantom Lord.

Laxus was back at Fairy tail, the guild hall was in perfect condition as if it had never been touched by Phantom Lords hands.

He looked around "LAXUS!" Someone screamed out and a fiery fist smashed into his jaw, he stumbled backward, "what the hell Natsu?!" He shouted at the flame brain.

That's when he saw the whole guild had surrounded them, all with different facial expression ranging from anger to sadness to… fear.

Lucy was the center of it all; his team looked so sad; they looked like they wanted to comfort him but didn't know how.

Different scenes of fantasia played out, Elfman and Freed's battle that forced the takeover mage to finally release the full brunt of his beast form, the near death of the ice mage grey who lay beneath Bickslow's feet, Juvia screaming for him frantically, water locking the Seith mage. Evergreen pinned to a wall with dozens of Erza's swords dancing in front of her, Erza threatening to kill her.

Things he had made his comrades do, the fear he had instilled in him, when Natsu and Gajeel had to take their own nakama down because he couldn't break free from his own insecurities.

He had caused so much pain that day…

"Why Laxus?" He heard her whisper and Lucy came forward, slowly one by one the Fairy Tail members disappeared leaving the two alone together. "You killed them," she whispered again, tears streaming down her face "was power really that important to you?" A sob escaped her throat.

"Lucy, no!" He reached for her but she avoided his grasp and her tears streamed harder down her face, "then _why_?!" She choked out.

"I didn't kill them." Laxus was insisted dumbfounded, did he? His memories were starting to muddle, and he felt like he couldn't concentrate.

"Yes you did!" She wailed and dropping to her knees the images flooded around him, his fairy law had indeed worked and now all of his guild mates, the whole town… were dead, all except Lucy.

"I don't ever want to look at you again!" She looked up at him again and he had to stifle the fear threatening to choke him "leave me _alone_!" She screamed, almost screeching like a mad woman as she thrashed around when he stumbled forward to reach out to her, she took off running in the darkness.

 _That won't happen_ , a voice echoed in his mind, the deep voice of a man _. Even if you do not believe that you are worthy of her, you can make sure that you build yourself up so you can be_. He was soothing, but commanding him with his voice _, Lucy is the light to your soul, and she would never abandon you or turn you away for a mistake you made a long time ago._

Who are you? He asked the disembodied voice.

 _You will all come to know me soon;_ the voice replied with a hint of a smile in his tone. _Wake up dragon slayer, wake up for your mate or it will be too late to save her_.

 _Save her_? He struggled within the confines of the darkness, roaring and tearing at the blackness desperately. His electricity sparked all over him, and finally after one more surge of power he managed to break through the fold and through the rock that was slowly incasing him.

Erza was battling Sol while screaming at Laxus to snap out of it.

Laxus finally complied to her angry request and charged forward with new determination launching his fist at the annoying little man, sending him flying through the wall and into the rubble on the other side.

"Don't ever fuck with me or my friends again" he said as he stood over the earth mages body who looked to dizzy to answer.

He turned to Erza to say something but Jose's voice spoke over the Lacrima speaker, "well, well, well it seems we did manage to get what we came for after all." He sneered, and a loud scream echoed through the guild and down toward Fairy Tail.

Erza and Laxus stared at each other horrified as a laugh and a sickening crack bounced in their ears, followed by another scream of pain, "you son of a _bitch_!" They heard Lucy spit at whoever had hurt her.

"Now you're all really gonna pay pathetic Faeries!" Erigor laughed maniacally and the sound of something being thrown violently against a wall and Lucy's muffled gasps were broadcast before it cut out.

Erza's face was white with fear as she turned to Laxus "go to her!" she commanded, "I was informed by Juvia who made it back to the guild that the only way to stop abyss break is to defeat the other two elemental mages left, I will do that, while you get Lucy back."

Laxus wasted no time in agreeing before he spun around and raced to find Lucy.

Erza watched him go before she herself went off to find either Totomaru or Aria; she hoped they could make it in time.

.

* * *

.

Lucy was sitting on the ground, Reedus had painted her, Wendy and Charle some cards to play while they waited, and she was twitching nervously however. She didn't like being holed up like this, not doing anything to help her friends. Wendy seemed to be feeling the same way because when she glanced at her every so often she would see her frown and sneak glances at the door.

Lucy was starting to feel antsy and she moved to get up, "what are you doing Miss Lucy?" Reedus asked her, Wendy and Charle were looking at her worriedly.

Lucy sighed "I was going to go on the rooftop and see if I couldn't find out what was going on… if their okay." She said softly.

"I'm sure their fine." Charle huffed

"Charle!" Wendy chastised her exceed, "she's right though Lucy-chan, I'm sure their alright?" The little bluenette offered helpfully, Lucy couldn't help but smile at her.

She bent down and hugged her, "we're not just friends Wendy, we're nakama, so that makes us sisters right?" She asked her.

Wendy looked surprised but excited "a sister?" she asked hopefully, a tiny blush dusted her cheeks as she smiled brightly at the blonde in front of her.

Lucy laughed "of course!" she ruffled her hair; she tensed when Wendy went stiff and sniffed the air growling.

"What is it Wendy?" She asked her, tense herself and preparing for the worst she took a battle stance, facing the doors.

"Trouble." Charle muttered, they all turned to the doors then and weren't disappointed when suddenly they were blasted open and there stood the members of Phantom Lord, Erigor in the center of the group.

"You weren't that hard to find blondie" he smirked.

"What did I say about calling me that?!" Lucy snapped at him, she pushed Wendy behind her protectively; Reedus also put himself between the intruders and the girls.

He was quickly attacked and knocked out of the way but he got back up fighting with all of his strength, "run Miss Lucy! Miss Wendy, I'll hold them off as long as I can!" The painter shouted conjuring up beasts to attack the intruders.

"Reedus!" Lucy shouted after him, Charle tugged on her shirt and she looked down to see a terrified Wendy, she had to get the little girl out of there.

'Oh no you don't!" She heard Erigor shout and she could feel him closing in on them, even with Reedus trying desperately to hold them back. Lucy kicked the backdoors open and tossed Charle into Wendy.

"Charle, fly her out of her!" She yelled shoving them both away from her before turning back to the fight.

"What? Lucy no!" Wendy cried out, her hand outstretched to the blonde but the exceed picked her up and began flying away from the hide out.

Erigor was looming in front of Lucy by now, "I shouldn't let your little friends get away so easily." He smirked.

"I swear if you touch either of them, I'll kick you so hard in your ball sack you won't be able to feel your nuts for a year," she threatened him darkly.

He tipped his head back and a throaty laugh escaped his mouth "you're hilarious blondie." He was taken aback when she suddenly punched him the face.

"I told you not to call me that!" She screeched.

He looked at her dangerously, "you're gonna pay for that!" He bit out, they struggled for a bit, with her trying to punch and kick him while he was trying to subdue her, finally he succeeded in knocking her out.

Slinging the girl over his shoulder, he whistled for the rest of the group, they were all beating poor Reedus to a pulp. "Let's get going, Master will want his prize." He sneered, and with that the group took off.

.

* * *

.

Erigor was beating her senseless, she screamed suddenly when he gripped her hair and hung her by it, Lucy tried desperately to bite back another scream, tears streaming down her face.

"Well, well, well, it seems we did manage to get what we came for after all." Jose spoke to Fairy Tail, the celestial mage grit her teeth when Erigor started pressing on her wrist, she grunted but she refused to relent.

Erigor got frustrated with her and snapped her wrist back, breaking the bone, she howled in agony, unable to hold it in.

"You son of a bitch!" She snapped when he let her go, she raised her hand to him but he caught it and kicked her across the room, she went flying and crashed into the wall slumping, near to passing out.

Hot tears streamed down her face, she wished she would just pass out so she didn't have to feel Erigor beating the shit out of her, she desperately wished for her hammer so she could fight back, or any one of her keys, she felt her consciousness slipping in and out, _just pass out already and when you wake up, it will all be over_. She thought to herself

She vaguely heard Jose and him talking and she listened intently "I'm going to go take care of those fairy brats once for all." She heard the master of Phantom Lord say; before she watched him disappear, looking up slightly so as not to distract Erigor.

Erigor wasn't done with her yet however, and he picked her up by her hair again and slapped her across the face, then backhanded her for good measure. "Maybe that'll teach you to raise your hand at me.

Lucy snarled and went to hit him again just for the hell of it, she knew without her keys or hammer she was essentially powerless, all of it derived from them, but that didn't mean she wasn't going down without a fight.

" _Fuck off_!" She spat at him.

He shook her like a rag doll and slammed her into the wall over and over, she felt a wet spot on the back of her head and knew it was blood, "you better keep your mouth shut, bitch, fortunately for you you're father wants you back alive, but he didn't specify the condition" he shouted.

He let her go then and turned away from her only to stop when he heard her stand up, "they'll all kill you…" she whispered, grinning "So go ahead, because after that you won't live to see another day." She taunted him, she knew another beating was coming, but again, she certainly wasn't going down without a damn fight.

Erigor spun back around and slammed her against the wall repeatedly, "that's it fairy bitch…!" he threated menacingly, raising his fist for another blow.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Laxus was racing down the hallway, he had caught Lucy's scent and it was driving him crazy, the stench of her blood invaded him, leaving the man absolutely maddened.

A figure stepped from the shadows and Laxus immediately wasted no time, lightning teleporting he slammed his fist into the character, shocking him for good measure and there he left Totomaru beaten lying dizzy on the ground, teeth missing.

Laxus smirked when he watched the mage fall, three down one to go, he thought to himself, and if Aria got in his way, he'd take him out just the same. No one was coming between him and Lucy.

.

* * *

.

Lucy struggled to get back up, her broken wrist hung limply, Erigor stared at her in shock and hatred, "quit getting up!" He screamed at her.

She smiled her infuriating smile and he gripped her around the throat squeezing… "n-no" she coughed out somehow, "cause it pisses you off- nnngh!" She groaned under the pressure of his thumbs.

Suddenly someone burst through the wall of the room and Laxus was there, standing in the dust from the debris, he looked around spying Erigor who had turned toward the noise but his hands never relented on the blonde.

When Laxus saw her, saw the way she looked he could only see red. Erigor immediately jumped away leaving her to fall face first into the ground but Laxus was there to catch her. Laying her down gently he suddenly stood to face a dead man.

Erigor had other ideas in mind, he figured one of the fairy brats would come looking, and he had saved this part for last, he brought out a small object that glowed purple and he immediately shoved it into his chest.

"Let's get started then shall we?" He laughed

Laxus had no idea what he just did, but he didn't like it, in any case he launched himself at the storm mage, fist crackling and ready to go.

.

* * *

.

Gajeel and Bickslow had the misfortune of finding Aria first, "Goddamnit!" Gajeel growled, he'd never admit it out loud but they needed help.

Bickslow was flung backward by Zetsu and crashed into the wall away from the iron dragon slayer, who braced himself for the same attack.

"There is no point in continuing this fight" Aria said calmly before crying out of nowhere "because you cannot hope to defeat me!"

"Why are you crying?!" Gajeel roared at him, this guy was fucking weird.

"It's just… so sad!" Aria seemed too busy in his fit of despair to notice Freed creeping up on him from behind, slowly drawing his blade out.

 _I intend on trapping him, hopefully this time it works_ … He was shocked however when Aria teleported behind him and had his palms out, Freed looked around horrified knowing exactly what the man was about to do.

Metsu, he was going to drain his magic as he had done with the Master.

Freed couldn't get away in time, he stood frozen in fear as his fate dawned on his features, but something other than fate had another idea in mind as a dark figure flew in front of him, coming between the two mages and something bright flashed sending Aria stumbling backward as the sword cut a part of his coat.

Bickslow was out for the count, slumped against the wall, his babies scattered around him, empty and lifeless, Gajeel could start to feel his injuries, so he was glad Erza had shown up.

"Freed!" Erza called out to him, "I need you to write trap runes, and I'll push him toward them!" She commanded him.

Freed nodded, and began working. Aria and Erza were locked in battle, she was being thrown around with his air magic, but she kept slashing through it.

"You have immense power Titania Erza!" Aria proclaimed, almost proudly before crying again "It is… so sad!" Gajeel was the closest and began moving away slowly with a weird look on his face.

Erza had that same look but quickly composed herself, "You will never hurt my family ever again!" She pointed her sword at him, "I will make sure of it." With that she slashed top speed at the man, never relenting, pushing him steadily further and further into Freed's trap, she was so close… only a couple more steps…

He caught her blade in his hands then, Erza hung in the air complete shock written all over her face as slowly the air mage lifted his blindfold with one hand and knocked her backward with the other.

"It's too bad you're traps didn't work Titania" Aria chuckled, his gaze bore down on them all, Erza leaped forward, desperate to push him into Freed's runes then, the air mage sent his most powerful attack, "behold!" He proclaimed both hands brought up as the spell was cast, "the airspace of death!" He shouted sending a spiral of wind rushing at her, "it's… so sad!"

Erza was sent back by the force that pushed at her, she could feel the deadliness of his magic, it was hitting her with full force, but she needed to defeat him, she needed to push back. Slicing through it suddenly she leaped at him her leg swung out to deliver one last kick hoping that would be all she needed.

He caught her leg however and swung her around laughing as she crashed into the wall, "it looks as if your plan has failed Titania!" He taunted, suddenly something pushed against his chest, he registered feeling a heavy pressure for a distinct moment before he was flung backwards into the rune trap Freed had created.

A steel uppercut from Gajeel knocked him out as soon as he crossed the line of the barrier, "fucking weirdo" the iron dragon slayer muttered retracting his steel.

"Good job Gajeel!" Erza stood up smiling while she wiped the blood from her mouth.

"Hey, who's going after Bunny girl?" He asked her.

"Laxus" Erza uttered the single word and Freed shuddered to think what kind of pain he would inflict on the person who they heard beat her, _woe be to those fools_ , he thought grimly, he had no time to reflect though as a snake like voice muttered around them.

"It's about time I take care of you pesky Fairy Tail scum!" Phantom Lord's guild master appeared before them, they were too tired for this, Erza looked around the room, there was no way they could defeat him, even on their best day, she didn't know what to do.

"And it's about time I finish you off!" A gruff voice spoke from behind him, Jose turned around to face Makarov, and they stared each other down.

Erza and the boys (minus Bickslow) cheered inwardly "Master! You're okay!" The red head cried in relief.

Makarov nodded to her reassuringly before he spoke "Erza I want you to take the others and go back to fairy Tail," he told her "this could get ugly."

Erza nodded and while the two men stood off, she helped Gajeel grab Bickslow and made their way back, there was no way Phantom Lord was winning now, she thought triumphantly.

.

* * *

.

Laxus grabbed the bastard and pummeled him to a pulp, Erigor stumbled backward and it made the blonde man grit his teeth, _how much more of a beating can this guy take_? He asked himself, he had been steadily beating the ever loving fuck out of the prick for a while now and he barely looked fazed.

 _I'm running out of energy, I never run out of energy, damnit if I don't finish him soon we're dead, Lucy's dead_ … _Lucy_ … he looked over at the battered, beaten girl. Erigor had shown her no mercy, he could tell she had broken ribs on top of her broken wrist and sprained ankle. Scratches, bruises and blood decorated her face and body and a black eye was starting to form.

It infuriated him beyond belief and all he had to do was look at her and his anger ignited every time, and every time he could muster the energy to go another round with the storm mage.

"How are you doing this?" He bellowed at the other man.

Erigor chuckled "I got this from one of the many creations from the book of Zeref" Laxus eye's widened upon hearing the name, Erigor smashed his own fist into the lightning dragon slayers face, causing a sonic boom that was slowly tearing down the walls of the guild around them.

"It's a type of Ethernano that was transformed into the black stone I put in my chest, it now occupies my heart and gives me immense power!" He threw his hands back in triumph.

Laxus was panting heavily at the man, there was no way that bastard had managed to get a hold of something like that, something so powerful. "How did you even manage to find something like that?" He growled.

Erigor smirked down at him "in the worth woodsea" he told him, Laxus looked at him in shock for the second time that day, "the same place Nirvana is supposedly hidden" Erigor laughed "I'll find that one too one day…" he mused.

Erigor was suddenly in front of him "you've lost too much magic, this thing doesn't last forever and will eventually break, but by the time it does, I'll be done with you." Erigor sneered in victory as he pummeled Laxus.

He slashed his scythe at the struggling blonde as he tried to fight back, Lucy whimpered in the background at the sight of him.

Erigor slashed again and a deep wound opened in Laxus chest, he spiraled to the floor of the room and crashed there, not able to move anymore.

I have to get up he thought, his teeth grinding so harshly he thought they might break as he tried to pull himself up.

"I need my hammer!" Lucy bit out, her hands reaching out toward Laxus, Erigor had formed his storm wall around him and she could hear the muffled cries of it cutting him to ribbons and Erigor was enjoying this way too much.

"I NEED MY HAMMER!" She bellowed, _I can't protect him_ … _any of them if I don't have it_ … She thought desperately, her will reached for it, called for it, wished, commanded, willed the weapon to come to her, at all costs to her magic, she didn't know why she was trying but she felt like it was all she had.

.

* * *

 **.**

Off in Oshibana a man was raffling tickets to people who were surrounding the hammer, men trying to lift it out of the ground for prize money, "come one! Come all!" The man shouted, "try to lift the hammer!" He proclaimed proudly.

He had chased off a little girl earlier that day who had picked up the celestial mages keys and silently dropped the ring around the hilt letting them clatter against the metal, he had shooed her away, shouting at her and sending the poor thing off in tears.

He had tried to lift the hammer himself but had no success confused he kept trying until one by one people began flocking around it, noticing this he instantly took advantage of the situation, and he grinned at his fortune.

A sonic boom and a crater instantly formed, flinging the sleaze backward into the crowd, everyone ducked and covered as the hammer shot off into the sky and another sonic boom later it again shot off in the direction of Magnolia, the crowd started to close in on the sleazy man, demanding their money back and he gulped audibly, his luck had run out.

A sonic boom could be heard for miles, over and over. As it reached a certain point during its journey, it would suddenly burst with extra energy launching it closer and closer to its destination.

Magnolia could hear a couple of booms, and people all over the city came out of their homes to find out what was happening, Fairy Tail mages looked on in wonder as something streaked across the sky and smashed through the walls of the guild hall.

"Grey whistled slowly "wonder what that was." He commented, everyone else was too dumbfounded to speak.

Erigor was laughing as Laxus was again thrown violently away, he abandoned storm wall to have a little more fun with guy "what's the matter lightening freak?" He taunted him, stalking to Lucy he gripped her hair violently and shook her rattling her teeth, she tried to force her mouth shut, she tried not to make a sound but a yelp escaped her throat.

Laxus snarled "Get the hell away from her!" a violent growl escaped his throat as he launched himself at the white haired man. Erigor flicked his scythe and threw him back and then went after him slashing the air dropping Lucy to her knees, he sliced up Laxus chest and the blonde clutched himself in pain, he looked at Erigor then at Lucy, he was going to kill this son of a bitch.

Erigor launched at Laxus and before the lightning mage could do anything both men were stopped cold in their tracks at Lucy's voice.

"NO!" Lucy bellowed her voice ringing like a bell, she stood up and something vibrated, her arm went out instinctively, as the hammer smashed through the wall into her outstretched hand.

She leaped out at Erigor slamming the hammer into him launching him away from Laxus, then she smashed it down onto the floor and hurtled immense power at him blasting a large chunk of wall and him out into the open.

She stood on the ledge of the guild hall looking down on him, a white hot light surrounded her, her eyes shone bright and when she spoke it was in a voice that wasn't hers, it was otherworldly

"You will pay." She told the arrogant son of a bitch whose face turned stony and white faced with fear, his triumph gone in a flash. Those three simple words held more promise than anything else Laxus had ever heard in his life, he watched the blonde woman in awe as she jumped going after Erigor and everyone from Fairy Tail gaped at the sight of her tearing into the storm mage, blasting him her hammer.

She pounded her hammer into Erigor's chest sending him spiraling toward the water, but she disappeared and reappeared behind him and slammed him upward, the sonic boom of her hammer sending wind to brush everyone's hair harshly, some of the spectators shielded their eyes.

"Is that Lucy?!" Someone asked among the crowd, but no one answered, instead they all waited with bated breath as the battle continued on.

She screeched viciously, as she bashed him across the face and he landed in front of Laxus who looked disbelievingly at him. Lucy float down gracefully, the white aura coming off her, her eyes were glowing and her hair was swaying making her look like an avenging angel,. She had her hammer gripped in one hand and she drug it across the floor as she made her way slowly, menacingly toward Erigor.

She grabbed him by his hair and lifted him, the storm mage grunted in pain, "if you ever hurt my nakama again," she said softly "I will destroy you" she hissed and with that she threw him backward.

Lucy lifted her hammer toward the sky, a rolling black thundercloud swirled above magnolia with Phantom Lords guild in the eye of the storm, lightning crackled in the air, and with a below that sounded like the ancient men and women of old, she slashed the hammer downward and lightning hit Erigor in the chest causing him to float in midair for a split second, before slumping unceremoniously onto the floor.

Lucy's glow stopped, and with that she collapsed, the ground rushed to meet her but strong hands caught her and Laxus pulled her flush against him.

"That was something else blondie" he chuckled, it rumbled in his chest and vibrated against her, she turned her face up to him, and gave him her best smile, before curling up into him and passing out.

His breath almost stopped in his lungs.

* * *

Makarov flung his hands into the air, a bright yellow spell appearing above him, "you will pay for harming my children!" He shouted, "With Fairy Law!" A light shone down high above the phantom lord guild hall, wiping any traces of Lucy's power and thunderclouds from the sky, bathing magnolia in its light, everyone watched in utter amazement, as the shadows disappeared.

Laxus was carrying Lucy out of the guild who was sleeping soundly, he had somehow managed to get her to hold her hammer for him.

The light bathed the two in gold and he looked up at it grinning his signature cocky grin, Jose was in trouble now, and so were all of his other phantom freaks.

He looked down at Lucy who was bathed in that same golden glow, despite the injuries to her face she looked peaceful, beautiful, he knew she had more injuries and he frowned thinking about them. He needed to get her back to Fairy Tail, and get Wendy to heal her.

With that thought in mind he lightning teleported and did just that.

.

* * *

.

Lucy woke up, feeling groggy she looked around the infirmary. She had expected to be semi alone, but did not expect her S-class team waiting patiently for her to wake up, they were all asleep in various parts of the room, Wendy was sprawled across Lucy's lap passed out, Charle curled up next to both girls and Laxus was sleeping with his head resting against her shoulder.

Lucy stretched waking the two, "Lucy!" Wendy exclaimed hugging the girl tightly, "I'm so glad you're okay!" she sniffled.

"Child, you must stop acting so foolishly, of course she's okay." Charle huffed, striking a haughty pose but her mouth twitched into a soft smile.

Lucy giggled at the cat's antics and turned to Laxus who was suddenly holding her hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb, "are you okay Lucy?" He asked.

She was a tad shocked by the contact, but she didn't pull her hand away, an unusual warmth settled in her breast bone, and her heart rate quickened and if he could tell he acted like he hadn't noticed.

"I'm fine." Lucy replied in an almost whisper.

"Cosplayer's awake!" They all turned their heads in the direction of the Seith mage, who had his arms outstretched, grinning.

"Shhhh!" Wendy hissed waving her arms frantically "Lucy needs her rest!" She almost shouted, suddenly she clamped her hands over her mouth.

"Gihi, way to go small fry" Gajeel commented, everyone in the room chuckled and Wendy turned to Lucy looking down, "I'm sorry for being so loud" she mumbled.

Lucy grabbed the bluenette and hugged her tightly, "it's okay Wendy" she told her and with that she ruffled the little bluenette's hair.

Master Makarov pranced into the room just then "alright brats! I think it's about time we leave Lucy to get some rest, everybody should get going." He said cheerfully, "now that you've seen she's woken, I see no reason for anyone to be here."

Everyone in the room frowned, Lucy picked at her blanket "if you wouldn't mind master I'd like to at least have somebody keep me company"

The master who had been standing at the foot of her bed, literally on the edge was smiling softly and had his eyes closed, at this he opened one.

"What about one of your spirits Lucy?"

The blonde visibly paled, "uum I don't think I'm ready for their reaction just yet, if you think this lot is disturbing" she hooked a thumb in the general direction of everybody in the room, "then you definitely won't like my spirits keeping me company."

"I'll stay here with her" Laxus offered, the Master raised his brow, Bickslow was grinning in the background, Wendy blushed but Erza and Gajeel were watching the lightning dragon slayer carefully.

"I'd rather deal with them in the morning, and I'm awake right now, I would be really bored since I'm not tired" she giggled nervously.

The Master nodded approvingly "well then I guess it's settled," he turned to the rest of the group "EVERYONE OUT!" He shouted at them.

The looks on everyone's faces mirrored one another's as they raced to get out under the death glare of the Master, all except Charle who nodded in her own head in approval, "umm, goodnight Lucy" Wendy shuffled her feet nervously, and then threw her arms around the girl in a tight hug.

Lucy patted her back lightly, returning the hug "Goodnight Wendy" she told the little bluenette.

"Come Wendy, I'll walk you to Fairy Hills" Erza offered.

Wendy brightened "o-okay!" She cried racing off to catch up to the red head, when everyone filed out of the room, Lucy found the quiet stifling, but also strangely relaxing.

Before the Master left the room he gave Lucy one finally look, "we must discuss the power you wielded today child" he told her, Lucy nodded, "I understand" she replied, he nodded approvingly before he walked out with a little wave of his hand, leaving her and Laxus alone.

"How are you feeling?" Laxus startled her out of her thoughts.

"Oh! I'm fine, just sore" she replied stretching her muscles, she looked toward the hammer that she had unceremoniously plopped in the middle of the room as soon as Laxus had entered the infirmary, too tired to hold it any longer.

"I should probably get that" she murmured more to herself.

"You probably shouldn't get out of bed" Laxus scolded her softly, but Lucy shook her head.

"Nonsense, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hurt" she swung her legs out of the bed and padded across the floor, picking up her hammer. She was careful not to let her keys brush anywhere near her she set it down next the headboard; she panted a little out of breath.

"How come you don't want your keys to touch you?" Laxus asked her curiously, Lucy loved her keys; it was unlike her to suddenly not want any contact with her spirits.

Said girl grimaced "because I know how they'll all act, fawning all over me, a couple might even force their own gates open, the only reason Loke hasn't is because I forced his closed, and he'd be the worst." She groaned.

Laxus mouth twitched upward, so she didn't like the celestial playboy, good to know.

Lucy dropped to her knees on the floor and laid half her body across the bed, she looked at Laxus for a minute before glancing at the bathroom doors.

"You okay blondie?" He asked her.

She smiled "that's good to hear" she chuckled.

"What?" He quirked an eyebrow at her, he was thoroughly confused.

Lucy scoffed "Erigor was calling me that" she huffed out a breath in frustration, turning slightly red in anger, "he had no right too, ugh… it was pissing me off."

Laxus chest swelled hearing her say that but he made no comment; then he watched her as she struggled to get up "hey! Where are you going?" He asked her.

"I'm taking a shower, I feel really gross" she told him wobbling her way to the bathroom, she fell forward on her hands and knees, sighing she called back at him "please look away, this embarrassing enough." And with that she proceeded to crawl forward on her hands and knees, _I don't feel so good_ , she thought; feeling herself turning green.

She felt the male's presence behind her and before she knew it he swooped her up, carrying her bridal style toward the bathroom, "let me just carry you" he said before she could protest.

Lucy's shoulders slumped as she allowed him to take her in the shower and place her gently on the cool tile, he left and came back with a towel and fresh clothes that Erza had apparently brought for her, and with that he left her to do the rest.

When she was done she called out to him, feeling weaker than before from struggling out of her clothes, washing; and struggling back into her clothes. She hated getting dressed while wet it was like wrestling with Satan, she was pretty sure in her tired state she had cursed at her shirt a couple times, or was it her pants? She was too tired to care, more tired than she had originally thought.

Laxus had come back in picked her up again and carried her back to the bed; he laid her down and was holding her hand rubbing his thumb back and forth.

Lucy turned so she was facing him, their noses almost touching, "so why'd you decide to stay?" she asked him in a low voice, slightly husky from her sleepiness, she was drifting.

Laxus smirked never relenting on the slow circles he was creating with his thumb "because I like you" he murmured.

" _huuuhh_?" she replied sleepily, she hadn't really heard him; she was literally seconds from crashing and her mind felt muddled, he chuckled and pressed his lips to her forehead "no… I think I love you blondie."

Okay so I know some things might be confusing, I replaced Elfman and Mirajane as the one's who unleashed their power in fantasia and Mira is still not able to preform her satan soul, yet, maybe idk it depends on the story, and just to give the readers a heads up,, I'm not doing the 7 year sleep thing, all characters in the anime/manga's ages after the 7 year sleep are the same without the 7 year sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

Lucy woke up the next morning feeling groggy; she looked around the room only to find it was empty. Frowning she sat up and swung her feet over the edge, she was just about get up, stretch and find out where everyone was when someone came in the room carrying a tray of food.

It was Erza with Gajeel dogging her heels "morning bunny girl." Gajeel snickered.

"What's so funny?" Lucy asked dryly, she rolled her eyes, she was not a morning person and she was eyeing the coffee and hoping if anyone made it for her they at least made it the way she liked, a little sugar, a lot of milk.

Luckily two small cups of said stuff was on the side, she sighed in relief. Erza noticed this and chuckled, "I know how picky you are about your coffee Lucy" she reached over after setting the tray, down she ruffled the celestial mage's hair affectionately, "how are you feeling this morning?" She asked the blonde.

Lucy shrugged nonchalantly "better, a little sore and still wound up after yesterday, but otherwise normal" she gave her companions a cheeky thumbs up, then started digging into her food, she hadn't eaten since yesterday so her stomach's hunger was long overdue.

"The master and Laxus will be in here soon to discuss with you yesterday's events." Erza told her.

Lucy shrugged again "I don't what for, I don't have answers myself, and my mother never told me anything about the hammer."

"Why don't you start by telling us what you do know, dear Lucy" The master walked in as serene as ever and perhaps a little tipsy as ever, he was smiling at her as usual. Laxus stood behind his grandfather looking his usual stoic self on the other hand, his mouth set in a firm line, arms crossed over his chest.

The blonde sighed "My mom kept the hammer in a special vault she built deep in the woods on our property, no one but us two were allowed there, she gave me the key to the doors, and the celestial keys when she got sick." She was staring at her food as the memories flashed through her mind, "the only thing I guess I'd find significant is that my mother never touched or picked up my hammer, but at the time I hadn't figured out yet that I was the only one who could, so I can't figure out if I got those powers from her side or my fathers."

She put her hands out in apologetic fashion "I really can't give you anything more concrete than that." She said looking up at them all finally, Bickslow at some point had snuck in and what standing in the doorframe behind Laxus.

"Do any of your books say anything about it?" Laxus offered.

"Well Freed was the only one who had the opportunity to read the newest addition when we found it, before Levy and I got the chance…" she couldn't finish the sentence, she really needed to go see her friend.

"Shrimps fine bunny girl." Gajeel gruffly reassured, "she's awake and worried about you, like you are her" she looked up at him just in time to catch a faint smile ghost over his lips, and she smiled back, he 'tch'ed' and looked away.

"Bickslow, go get Freed" Laxus ordered his friend without even turning to look at him, the Seith mage disappeared and in a few minutes he had brought Freed back.

"To answer your question before anyone asks, no I did not find anything useful about Lucy's hammer; I only found more information and clues to the whereabouts of the pieces to the crown." He informed the team.

"What about your spirits Lucy?" Erza asked.

Lucy shook her head "they never said anything to me about it, I don't think they know anything either, and I've even asked grandpa crux to look into my weapon, but he came up empty, which is unusual for him."

They all looked at each other, the master this whole time was rubbing his chin thoughtfully "well, we will have to monitor you closely from now on Lucy until we can figure out what kind of power you have, and how strong you are." He said.

Lucy nodded, understanding, but not liking it, all she could think of was her team invading her space and that happened with everyone minus Bickslow who only came on occasion with Laxus, she sighed inwardly; they did not need an excuse to barge into her apartment whenever it suited them.

"Speaking of my keys I should probably summon them, I'm pretty sure their worried and if no one wants to stick around for the awkwardness that will happen" she smirked fondly "then you might want to leave" she finished.

All except Erza and Laxus left, the two stood rooted to their spots not saying a word, both curious about how her reunion with her spirits would turn out.

The first thing Lucy wanted to do was get Aquarius over with, they heard the celestial mage fighting with the spirit in the bathroom.

"You summoned me in a sink?!" The spirit shrieked

"Better than the toilet bowl" they heard Lucy retort.

There was quit a quarrel going on between the two that the mages found amusing and slightly alarming especially when they heard a shriek and a splash "I can't STAND YOU!" Lucy shrieked again, "Spray water at me one more time."

She shrieked again, Aquarius had done as she asked after all.

Lucy summoned another spirit after the first departure "You summoned me hime?" The pink haired one; "I need clothes Virgo" they heard her mutter, Erza and Laxus were stifling laughter, which the males more or less turned into a hearty cough while Erza had her hand plastered onto her face to hold back her fit of giggles.

"I can hear you!" Lucy called back to them.

She finally came out in clean clothes, "Virgo's letting the other spirits know I'm okay, and there's just one spirit left" she held Loke's up to the light "open gate of the lion Leo!" she chanted.

Immediately the lion tackled Lucy and pulled her into a tight embrace, he refused to let go despite the girls wishes and much to Laxus annoyance, it was getting really hard for him to control himself and if the ass hat of a spirit didn't let go, he was going to…

"Loke, you're choking me, I can't breathe!" Lucy protested pushing at him

"Are you alright princess?" he asked her he had stepped away but his hands were resting on her upper arms, rubbing up and down in a soothing gesture, Lucy waved him off however much to the spirit's pained face and Laxus enjoyment.

"Yes I'm fine, just still tired" she yawned as if to punctuate her words.

Loke was still frowning "princess… Lucy" that got her attention.

"What is it Loke?" she asked, fear was about to blossom in her chest when his next words sucked it right back in and replaced the emotion with shock.

"The spirit king wants to see you." He told her.

The three mages were taken aback, "why does he want to see me?" She asked her friend, he shook his head though.

"I have no idea, he said it was important though, but to meet him at your convenience when you were well rested and ready." He told her.

Lucy looked around the room at her friends and the master for a minute before turning back to him, "I'll meet him" she told him "where would be the best place?" She asked.

Loke smiled "how about where we first met?" he said with a sparkle in his eyes, Lucy felt too tired for that and she was glad when Laxus cut in.

"I don't think she should go that far, she still needs to rest." He crossed the room and stood behind Lucy, glaring at the lion spirit who glared right back, the master and Erza nodded, "he's right" Erza pointed out.

Loke looked annoyed but conceded, "Fine" he snapped at Lucy without meaning to, she flinched from his sudden rashness, but before she could say anything he disappeared.

Lucy frowned "what did I do?" she whispered.

She felt a hand on her should and turned to see Laxus looking down at her "nothing blondie, he's just a… stressed." He was going to say 'prick' but thought better of it.

Loke came back looking worried, "what did he say?' Lucy asked nervously when he wouldn't look at her, he seemed to be thinking deeply on something, he looked startled when she asked him the question, "he says he's going to wait for you in the guild hall, right now." He said.

"What?!" Lucy shouted, she turned and hobble ran into the guild, the others following at her heels.

Sure enough the celestial spirit king was standing in the middle of the guild hall his head barely brushing the ceiling as he watched Lucy come down the stairs and stop in front of him.

"Mustache man?" she asked him bemused, he chuckled.

"Princess, I noticed an incredible strength from you yesterday, and it is about time someone explained the origins of your hammer." He told her.

"You know where my hammer came from?" she asked excitedly "wait it wasn't my mom's? Why am I the only one who can pick it up? Are there other powers I need to know about? Whe-"

"Lucy!" the celestial spirit chuckled and folded his arms over his chest, "how about I begin with a story." He told her.

The blonde nodded and immediately found a spot to sit, the others sat around her and Mira automatically brought her a strawberry lavender tea after Wendy recommended it.

 _It was a long time ago_ the celestial spirit king started. _The origin of magic was dark, it was granted to Zeref and his kind by the beings of the underworld, those of us Gods and goddesses saw the reign of terror Zeref brought upon mankind and we decided to intervene before the balance on this earth was disrupted._

 _We sought human partners for ourselves and our children were born as great heroes. That is where mages get their magic from, not the origin of dark, but the origin of light._

 _Our children - the demi gods- fought against Zerefs dark army and when the battle was finally won they were brought up to Valhalla to live among us, as is their birth right, some refused and decided to stay on earth and teach the humans our ways._

Lucy was fascinated and the entire guild was enraptured at this point, to know where their magic came from… it was unbelievable.

 _There were demi gods who thought that they had the right to rule over human kind. One of my oldest friends went back to earth and sacrificed himself to give specific humans parts of his magic and power, and that is why you have god slayers, they are really kin of each other through him._

 _That explains why he calls everyone old friend, I guess in honor_ of _his old friend_ Lucy thought, _except me, he calls me princess like just now_ , she shifted into a more comfortable position while listening to the rest of the story.

 _The demi gods fought humans and each other alike and there was a great civil war and on the human side was a great warrior, mighty, strong, capable of great things, he was a leader and he was the leader during the battle against Zeref, and_ only _someone like him could be leader to his kind._

The celestial king smiled fondly, and it perked at Lucy's attention.

 _His name was Thor, who was known as the Thunder God, my son._

Lucy smiled at the Celestial spirit king; the fondness in his smile warmed her heart. He surprised her when suddenly he shrank down in size and standing before them was a tall well-built man, who was tanned, with lightning blue eyes and blonde hair that reached past his shoulders.

"My son wielded a hammer I created for him from the stars in the sky and since his magic seemed to be of thunder and lightning I gave the hammer those gifts, only those of _my_ descendants could wield the hammer, only those of Thor's blood.

Lucy gaped, so she was…? Thor's distant relative, the same thought was mirrored on everyone's face and the spirit king laughed heartily, "I must continue my story."

 _Very rarely does my kind fall in love, and I did with a beautiful woman who was kind to her spirits and that's what drew me to her, to see her for myself. You are the same as her Princess, you remind me so much of your mother, it is unreal._

Lucy gulped, was it her imagination or was this going where she thought it was…

 _I was enchanted by this woman, she seemed to love another man, but that didn't stop me, I needed her and she loved me just as deeply. Together we created a child just as beautiful as my love. I have a daughter, and Thor has a sister, Lucy, I don't think I need to tell you who this girl is, or who her mother was._

The blonde was reeling in shock, she felt like she could have fainted and in fact her head was feeling light, she put her hand to her forehead and stared at the celestial king for a minute "me" she stated simply, quietly, so quiet the people near her barely heard save for all the dragon slayers in the building.

"So Lucy is your daughter?" Laxus asked, shock coloring his words.

"That's… impossible" Erza stuttered.

The master just stood there taking it all in, he wasn't surprised Lucy was powerful, he was surprised that she was the daughter of a very powerful god.

Lucy almost choked on her own breath "so Jude…" suddenly it felt weird to call him dad "he was never my father." She looked up at her… (she couldn't call him that either), at the spirit king.

He stared at her with his unnerving lightning blue eyes that seemed to crackle almost like the element itself, _I wonder if that's why Thor and I got that power_? She thought.

"Yes princess, you are my daughter. "He told her, _that also explains why he doesn't call me old friend_ she noted "I loved your mother like no other woman, I could not bring her to the spirit world with me or she would have died there.

"You on the other hand can live there if you wish, or live in Valhalla or both, if you ever choose to live with me and my kind, but you can never come back." He finished.

While Lucy seemed in the middle of processing this, Loke was frozen. He felt like he couldn't move this whole time but when the spirit king mentioned Lucy staying in the celestial spirit world forever, he was snapped out of his frozen state as warmth and hope bloomed in his chest.

He stared at the girl next to him, he could have her, he could be with her and he wouldn't have to resort to just flirting with her. He could tell her how he felt, Loke looked over at the lightning bastard and saw he was watching him carefully unconsciously moving closer to the girl sitting next to him; it made the Lion's blood boil.

Laxus blood was boiling too, the spirit playboy was _not_ taking his mate from him, if the bastard thought so he was dead wrong and he continued staring at the lion spirit hoping to bore holes in him. He wanted shock the prick, scoop Lucy up in his arms and take off with her, keep her away from the playboy and the spirit king. Fear gripped his heart like a vice and nearly choked him, what if they did take her?

Lucy had other things on her mind though "if you're my father then why didn't you tell me?" She asked him, Laxus heard the cry in her voice and it snapped him out of his selfish thoughts, his heart broke for her.

"Years my father ignored me, especially after my mother died, he made my life hell, he tried to sell me to other clients! Not once did you…" save me, she couldn't say it, it sounded childish, like a little girl begging her parents to pick her up and hold her, it was too intimate.

The spirit kings face softened, "I kept my distance because seeing you after your mother died would have forced my hand into simply taking you from this world, and I'd hoped that one day you would leave that life and pursue your own or I would have." He told her sadly, "the day I saw you for the first time when you saved Leo my heart swelled with pride and love for you my daughter, you were the light and pureness, that rivaled your mothers, you look just like her." His face twisted into grief "I miss her every day."

"So do I" Lucy mumbled, she stood suddenly and raced over to him throwing her arms around his middle and just held him as tightly as possible, she felt arms wrap around her and the warmth and love radiating from her father comforted her. "Are you going to stick around this time?" She asked.

"Of course princess" he murmured "I will be sending your brother to teach you your new powers and I also have somethings I must tell you." He stood back holding her at arm's length "Leo tells me that you searched for pieces of the crown?" He asked her.

"Yes?" She answered, although wondering what that had to do with all this "someone from the magic council wants it."

The spirit king looked grim "it is not their right, kin to Thor or not, it is your right as my second born child to wear the crown. I was rewarded to my son for defeating his opponents in the civil war, he became king of his kind, but only to demi gods, it does not pertain to humans or mages, and only a demi God can wear it."

"Why would someone from the magic council want it?" she asked worriedly.

"My guess is to wield its power, since they are his kin they could but it would have drastic consequences." He explained "you must find it before they do."

"Do you know where it all is?' she asked.

He shook his head "neither Thor nor I hid the crown or the jewels, we both agreed its power was too great," he said, his next words had all the dragon slayers perking up with interest. "Instead we had a dragon hide them."

 **this chapter is a part 1 of two chapters that center around the origin's of Lucy, the crown and the hammer.**

 **I want a confrontation between Laxus and Jude and I will get to that! But needed to get this out of the way first, so enjoy!**

 **Also, look out for a new story I'm starting :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

"Who was it?!" They all heard Natsu shouting, he raced to the front of the crowd "Was it Igneel?" Lucy stepped back to look at him frowning sadly, she knew the dragon slayer wanted any information on his father and she hoped for his sake that her… father, would give it to him.

The spirit king nodded "actually, yes it was." He told the pink haired boy in front of him.

Natsu stepped back some in shock, all the dragon slayers tensed for a moment before the silence was broken by the pink haired boy. "Where is he? Have you heard from him recently?" Natsu was suddenly there in front of the father daughter pair, desperation and longing ringing in his voice.

Lucy stepped away as far as she could but her father's arm stopped her from going any further, he was looking down at her and smiled.

The spirit king turned to the dragon slayer "I'm sorry old friend, but I haven't spoken to Igneel in almost four thousand years." He told him.

Natsu looked down sadly, "so you don't know where he is?" He asked sullenly, even though he already knew the answer the spirit king was silent and it was enough, with that Natsu sulked away. Hurt was so evident on his face that it broke her heart.

Lucy let out a soft cry and reached out for him, she didn't know what to do or say but she had to try, again her father stopped her. "I have very little time left Lucy, I must attend to the spirit world and I need to explain more to you."

"Your brother will be coming to teach you about the hammer you wield, he can only come for short periods of time, maybe once a month or so, so take everything he teaches you to heart. Thor is excited to meet you" her father told her with a crinkle in his eyes, "he looks forward to meeting his little sister at last."

Lucy smiled affectionately, "I always wanted a sibling" she giggled "this will be weird though, since he is a few thousand years old and all." She teased, giving her father her best smile.

The spirit kings face softened drastically and he pulled Lucy in for a tight hug, "I myself can only visit once in a great while, but rest assured I will make sure to be a good father and make up for all this lost time." He rested a hand on her shoulder and he began to fade, Lucy could feel tears springing to her eyes and she didn't care when they fell freely.

"Do you have to go now?" she whispered, she was getting really used to the idea of having him around, a piece of her family… even if it had only been brief and she had only just discovered this all of fifteen minutes ago.

She desperately clutched onto him and she felt a pair of strong arms around her waist gently tugging her back, The spirit king looked beyond her shoulder, gazing curiously at Laxus, who held his daughter so tenderly, he broke his gaze however to smile down at her one more time, and brush his hand along her cheek before he finally vanished.

Lucy slumped into whoever was holding her and she was surprised when she smelled the faintest trace of spice, she turned to see Laxus gazing down gently at her and her breath caught before a sob wracked her throat and she clung to him greedily.

Laxus was most certainly going to drink in this moment, he pulled her further into his grasp and then picked her up bridal style, and nodding to Erza he carried her out of the room with only the S-class following to give her some semblance of privacy.

"That was something else" Wakaba commented.

"Indeed" agreed the gravelly voice of the Master, he was staring up at the retreating girl, at least he didn't have to worry too much about her possibly losing control of her powers if she was going to be taught how to use them properly once and for all.

He sighed and stared down at the beer in his hands, this whole situation with the crown had nagged at him, Erza and Laxus for a long time but now that they knew the truth, they needed to double their efforts into finding the missing pieces, whoever else wanted the thing didn't seem to bode well for everyone.

On a lighter note, at least his grandson was settling down, he took a sip and then smiled one big goofy grin chuckling to himself; _grandbabies_.

He stared at Mira who seemed to have the same thoughts running through her mind, ever since they all watched Laxus affectionately carry the young girl off she had been standing there swooning and muttering incoherently about blonde haired, mutter mutter, blue/brown mutter mutter, babies.

He chuckled and took another thoughtful sip as he watched his children go back to their daily routines if not for the constant flow of gossip going on around the hall.

Meanwhile Lucy had calmed down by the time they reached the infirmary and when Laxus set her down she felt a little empty as the warmth radiating off of him left her, she whimpered in protest but didn't say anything.

They were all watching her silently, she finally relented under their gazes with a sigh "I'm okay guys" she told them, not looking at them.

"Bullshit" Laxus rough voice cut through her and she tore her gaze from staring off up to him, with a frown etched onto her face.

"I'm really fine," she protested, "I just have a lot to think about, is all." She went back to staring at nothing.

Laxus was about to interject again when not only Erza put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head silently, but Loke came in the room.

"Can I talk to Lucy alone?" he asked quietly, Lucy looked up confused, the others nodded but Laxus body twitched in anger, _what the hell did he want now_? He thought in annoyance, ripping the head off that punk was starting to sound more and more pleasing at this point.

"Sure Loke" Lucy nodded, she looked around the room expectantly and her eyes settled on him for a moment, finally and begrudgingly Laxus left with the rest of the group but not before giving Loke the hardest glare he could muster which the spirit returned tenfold.

As soon as the door closed Bickslow led Erza and Gajeel off and Laxus faltered behind them, staying to eavesdrop, he was going to know what that playboy was saying.

"What's up Loke?" He heard Lucy asked her spirit.

"Lucy…" Loke began, not knowing what to say at first, he was fiddling with his glasses nervously and Lucy frowned standing up, she went up to him and placed a hand against his cheek.

"Are you okay?" She asked him softly, worriedly.

He leaned into her touch and it took her by surprise, "screw it" he muttered "you know the spirit king offered for you to stay in the spirit world" he told her grasping her shoulder, outside Laxus gut twisted and it took everything in him not to burst into the room.

"Are you going to consider it?" Laxus heart leaped in his chest when he heard the question. There was along drawn out moment of silence as he waited with bated breath for Lucy's answer.

"No." She said, smiling sadly at her beloved spirit, she felt so bad for him when his hands dropped from her shoulders "I love my life here, I'd miss my friends… no… my family too much" her face broke out in a grin "I'd especially miss Erza, Laxus, Gajeel and Bickslow" she laughed.

Loke crossed his arms over his chest "you'd miss that idiot?" He muttered.

"Huh? Who are you talking about?" She asked innocently "none of them are idiots Loke" she then scolded.

The lion sighed, "I wasn't talking about anybody Princess" he gripped her hand in his. "Just know if you ever change your mind, just say the word to me and I will immediately make the arrangements" he told her earnestly, looking into her eyes before she became uncomfortable and looked away.

"I won't ever want to go to Valhalla or the celestial spirit world Loke" she pulled her hand from his but pat him softly on the arm in a soothing gesture, "but if I ever change my mind, you'll be the first to know!" she joked.

Laxus grit his teeth so hard he was sure they were going to crack under the pressure, he had a bone to pick with that pesky lion spirit of hers now, although he was extremely relieved that not only did Lucy not want to leave them… him… she had even considered him to be close to her… even if it was only as a friend.

He was tired of playing games however, if he didn't let Lucy know how he felt… and soon, he was going to end up losing her to that idiot playboy – or anybody else for that matter - and that kind of fear tore into his heart leaving him almost breathless, that wasn't going to happen, he growled low, over his dead body.

.

* * *

.

Loke eventually left, and her team had come back to keep her company since she was supposed to stay in the infirmary tonight; but soon Wendy had kicked them out, now she was alone with her own thoughts.

 _If I don't do something my…. Jude will send another guild to attack, or at least he'll send somebody_ , she thought. I don't need my guild to be attacked because of him. She had to catch herself from saying _father_ , the whole situation was still weird to her, but she was accepting it pretty well considering.

She got up slowly and turned so her bare feet could touch the cool floor. Lucy stood and made her way to the bathroom to dress before she slipped out of the infirmary, she walked past the Master's office to see the poor old guy fast asleep, drool running down his mouth and she had to suppress a giggle.

Going back to the infirmary for a second she returned with a blanket and gently laid it over his sleeping form.

She had her shoes in hand and sat on the edge of the stairs putting them on slowly, her body shaking with anticipation for what she was thinking of doing. She was determined, she would go confront her former father and demand he cease any and all attacks on Fairy Tail once and for all.

Soon the blonde slipped out of the guild doors as silently as she had the infirmary ones and vanished into the night.

.

* * *

.

Laxus was up and early, ready to go and see if his blondie was okay. When he went in the guild hall was silent save for a few early bird stragglers, so it wasn't long before he was through he infirmary doors and looking at a whispering Master and Erza, a worried looking Wendy and no sign of Lucy.

"Oi! Where's Blondie?" He barked out, causing Wendy to jump, Erza and his grandfather faced him with concerned faces.

"We have no idea Laxus, but we can deduce it was sometime last night, since the Master was asleep whens he left." She gave his grandfather an almost stern look, and the old man had the decency to look sheepish.

Laxus snorted "fall asleep while doing paperwork again gramps?' His eyebrow twitched, when his grandfather blushed and his grin got bigger.

He made another snort of disgust before turning back to Erza "did you search her apartment?" He asked, to which her head nodded her reply.

"Yes, Gajeel informed us over the communications lacrima that she wasn't there, he's on his way back now, saying she left a note."

She left a note? _She left_ … his mind came to that conclusion but the next thought struck a chord with him, did she change her mind after her conversation with Loke? He almost choked but held his stoic expression; the look in his eyes didn't go unnoticed by Erza and the master however.

It was painstaking waiting for Gajeel to finally arrive with damn note and Laxus paced the infirmary his temper rising with every second that ticked by, when the iron dragon slayer finally did walk through his grandfather's office doors, (the three had since moved there while Wendy went back to the main hall) the last straw on his temper damn near broke "took you long enough!" He snapped.

"Shut your trap hole, Laxus I'm here and Bunny girl ain't in danger" he handed the note to the Master who read over it carefully, it was a simple note.

 _I've gone to take care of my father once and for all,_

 _I'll be back I promise!_

 _Love you all._

 _Lucy._

"Her hammer was left at her apartment too" Gajeel notified them all.

"You could have told us that over the communications lacrima!" Laxus bellowed.

"I didn't because I wanted to know what the plan of action was going to be!" Gajeel bit back, they both glared at each other.

"We do nothing." Makarov cut in before it got too heated between the two.

"What?" Laxus sneered "what do you mean we're not going after her?" He demanded.

His grandfather looked way too serene for his liking and his skin crackled with lightning "Lucy's a big girl" Makarov spoke "if she says she'll be back, then she will, and clearly she wanted to do this affair alone or she would have asked you all to come along." He replied in that annoying wise voice of his, that grated on Laxus nerves all too often.

"And what if something happens?" The sneer in the lightning dragon slayers voice hadn't lessened any.

"If she isn't back in two days, you all can go look for her." His grandfather said calmly, before Laxus could argue Bickslow walked into the office.

"Wendy says Cosplayers gone missing?" He asked with a yawn, the guy was not a morning person, but Erza was slowly changing that.

"I'm glad to see you finally crawled out of your bed Bickslow" she said sternly, arms crossed over her chest in a disapproving manner, Bickslow winced.

"Yeah… I was up late last night" he shrugged, bar hopping was a hobby of his.

Gajeel made a sound in the back of his throat and left, when Bickslow got the details he wasn't far behind him and Erza seeing there was nothing left to do walked out leaving grandfather and grandson alone with each other.

Laxus gave him a hard look "I'm going after her." He stated, he wasn't going to argue and his grandfather wouldn't interfere.

Makarov sighed and rubbed the back of his head "I thought as much," he said knowingly in that gravelly voice of his, he looked up at his grandson then and nodded "alright go, just be aware she might be upset with you for following her." He warned him, crossing his arms over his chest.

Laxus didn't waste any time, he turned heel and stalked out of the office without a backward glance he was soon leaving Fairy Tail and headed to the Heartfilia estate.

.

* * *

.

Lucy had made it to the mansion she grew up in she was staring up at it from the gate, by the time she worked up the courage for what she was going to say to Jude it was already midafternoon.

 _Everyone's bound to have found my note by now_ , she thought absent mindedly as she walked up to the large doors quietly. Servants suddenly swarmed out and greeted her, it wasn't long before she was ushered inside, fawned over, dressed lavishly and escorted to Jude's library where he was bent over his work.

"Lucy" he said without looking up.

"Jude" she replied flatly, he looked up at her then before going back down to his paperwork, scribbling a few more notes in.

"You should learn to respect your father more, daughter" he said harshly.

Lucy gazed at him unflinchingly, and the next words out of her mouth stunned him so badly he dropped his pen. "You know damn well I'm not your daughter" she replied bluntly.

He looked up at her then, eyes as big as the moon, his mouth gaping open. Then standing up angrily he almost spat out his next words "so you're disowning me?' He demanded in a strange voice, but Lucy's face remained as stoic as Virgo's.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." She said coldly.

"How did you find out?" He whispered angrily, she glanced at his shaking fists and then back up to his bulging eyes.

"I'd wondered why you hated me so much after mom died" she observed "I wonder also if you only put up with me for her sake." She continued "and after her death you couldn't bear to look at me, knowing I wasn't your daughter." Her face softened then "it must have been hard for you. "The coldness in her voice relented, she suddenly felt very sorry for him. He loved her mother and even though she knew her mother loved him, she loved her spirit king even more; it must have wounded the man badly.

Jude tightened his fists but suddenly turned away, his cold calculating demeanor back in place as he turned his back to her and folded his hands behind him.

"It doesn't matter, you're still a Heartfilia, and you must perform your duties to your family." He lectured, "You know very well why I sent for you."

"I know, and it's never going to happen." She told him.

"And why is that?" he asked spinning around to face her.

"Because if you do, I'll tell all your clients I'm not really your daughter" she pointed out, "it won't affect me really, seeing as I don't care about what people think of me, and I think it would be crueler for people to find out your daughter is a bastard instead of just a runaway."

She had him there, his jaw was practically hitting the ground at her brashness, she had gotten bolder since she had run off and she knew it.

"you wouldn't dare!" he spluttered out finally, to which Lucy shrugged, feigning a bored look on her face, she pretended to examine her fingernails, this behavior of hers was taught to her long ago and came in handy from time to time.

This was one of those times. "You know what I'm saying is the truth, _Jude_ " she drew out his name for added effect, "I really don't care about my reputation, so I really wouldn't risk it if I were you."

She tore at her dress and threw the garment on the floors suddenly, before turning away with a haughty flair "test me, go after me and especially Fairy Tail again, and I'll make sure you regret it." She promised before exiting the room, the silence stunning the atmosphere.

.

* * *

.

Laxus had a score to settle anyway, he thought over that as he stalked up the pavement to the Heartfilia manor, he was intent on kicking down the doors and dragging Lucy out of there if he need before taking care of her father.

He stopped when he saw her in the setting sun, staring at what looked like a lavish grave, "Lucy?" He called out; she turned to face him with a surprised look on her face, before it broke out in a knowing grin.

"I was wondering if you guys would follow me" she chuckled then frowned in confusion, "where are the others?" She asked him as he came up to stand before her, hands in his pockets as he observed her silently for a minute.

"Gramps forbade them to go after you, due to the note you left behind" he finally broke the silence.

Lucy's brow lifted "and you? Why did you come?" She asked him, it earned her a mischievous grin.

"I wasn't gonna listen to him!" Laxus let out a booming laugh, Lucy shook her head at him, she giggled and then went up to the blonde man hugging him around the waist, he looked surprised but wrapped his own arms around her, it was strangely comforting being in his arms, and he felt like he was on top of the world at that moment himself, birds were twittering and insects chirping, the wind rustled the leaves all around them but it was peaceful, and that specific kind of quiet that was relaxing, so they stayed there for a moment.

She broke away first giving him her killer smile "c'mon, I took care of things here, we should get going" she said brightly.

Laxus shook his head at her though, "hold on, I've got a score to settle." With that he turned and went up to the mansion.

Lucy could have stopped him… maybe, but he wasn't her father anymore, he was just a man who attacked her guild... Laxus guild, she wasn't going to stop him from what she guessed was avenging their nakama.

Laxus had another idea in mind though when he strode up to the doors to the gorgeous mansion, busting them open with his foot Fairy Tail style, he shooed away what maids and servants actually dared come across his path and try to kick him out, and he cockily made his way to Lucy's (previous) father's study.

He had been able to tell with the lingering scent she left which direction it was in, sure it went in other directions, but this one; on this path was the strongest. So when he burst through study doors he wasn't surprised to see Jude Heartfilia stand up and shout at him to get out.

"I don't know what the meaning of this is! But you need to leave!" The pompous man pointed a finger toward the exit forcefully, his face going red in anger.

Laxus face turned dark and he lightning teleported over to him; in a split second he had Jude up by the collar and was face to face with him. He could vaguely hear a couple of the servants angrily shouting at him in the distance but he ignored them, instead he concentrated on the person in front of him who was clawing at him arm and going blue from gasping for breath.

Laxus shifted his hold so Jude could breathe but he couldn't escape, he was reminded who had the real power here.

"Listen here, you bastard" he shook him for good measure. "I don't think I have to tell you twice to leave Lucy alone. If you come within a city block of her and I find out I'll shock you, till your nothin' but a blackened crisp, no one will be able to recognize you when I'm done with you!" He snarled.

Jude choked and sputtered out his next words. "What is she to you?" He demanded.

"My mate, see I'm dragon slayer and we don't like what's _ours_ being messed with." Laxus shook the man again, "mess with her, you mess with Fairy Tail, and I won't be the only one after you, I can guarantee you that, but their all gonna have to get in line." He grinned an animalistic grin and finally threw Jude into his chair, the fear that passed across his face was priceless and Laxus couldn't help but let out a booming laugh. "I'll leave you to think about it," he said and with that the lightning dragon slayer turned heel and left.

Lucy was still waiting for him when he got back to her; she stood up from where she was siting and walked up to him. "Everything okay?" She asked, worry pulling her eyebrows together, she reached up as if to touch his face but hesitated.

Before she could put her hand down he grabbed it though and brought it up to his chest, he could feel her heart hammering and it made him swell with longing, he wanted badly to kiss her senseless right then and there. _Screw this_ he was tired of skirting around her with his own feelings toward her, he wanted her and he was going to make sure she knew that.

Lucy was genuinely confused when he grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest, right above his heartbeat and it made her own stutter in response, the look in his eyes was almost hungry and when he leaned down she didn't expect him to lock his lips over hers.

It was small at first, he just placed his lips over hers in a gentle touch but when she sighed he took it further grabbing her chin with his free hand, the one that held her hand over his heart slipped down and encircled her waist pulling her against him, his kiss became more intense, more passionate and she responded eagerly.

When they finally broke apart she looked confused, and he rubbed a thumb over cheek before answering her questioning gaze. "I want to do this right" he told her softly "I don't expect anything… not right now anyway, but I needed you to know how I felt. I want you" he said bluntly "All of you and eventually I will."

She raised her eyebrow at his cockiness and he grinned, he wasn't sorry "But I'll make sure I…. court you… first." The words _court_ were a bit heavy on his tongue, since he never said it in his life, and he most certainly never advanced any "relationship" he ever had, because it never went that far.

Lucy giggled and it was his turn to cock an eyebrow up at her, "I can tell that was almost painful" she teased, she mulled it over for a minute before speaking slowly as if weighing her words carefully. "Fine, if you really want me then you'll show me, I don't play games Laxus I want something real, and I won't play hard to get, you know that." She said so seriously he had to frown at that.

"I don't want to have to fight for it; I want someone else to do it this time." She softly told him, looking down at his chest since he was still holding her very close.

"What do you mean this time?" He asked her, but she just shook her head in response, looking up at him, she smiled.

"C'mon, I'm sure the others are worried, and I'm sure Master is eagerly awaiting you lecture" she giggled and stepped away from him holding out her hand for Laxus to take.

He sighed when her warmth left him but he took her hand in his own and walked with her, groaning when he realized she was right… he was gonna get the lecture of his life. _Fuck_.

.

.

* * *

 **I always seem to forget to add the spaces for time skips before posting... ooops**


End file.
